Amy Goodman // Current

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4 months ago

On the 6th Anniversary of the Iraq War, Is Anyone Listening?

Has war reporting improved? Amy Goodman, Dahr Jamail and others on the legacy of the media's failures in covering the Iraq war.

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I want my Democracy Now

Today's Headlines * AIG to Pay Out $450 Million in Bonuses * FMLN’s Mauricio Funes Wins El Salvador... more

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Amy Goodman - Jailing Kids for Cash

Jailing Kids for Cash
by Amy Goodman
As many as 5,000 children in Pennsylvania have been found guilty, and up to 2,000 of them jailed, by two corrupt judges who received kickbacks from the builders and owners of private prison facilities that benefited. The two judges pleaded guilty in a stunning case of greed and corruption that is still unfolding. Judges Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. and Michael T. Conahan received $2.6 million in kickbacks while imprisoning children who often had no access to a lawyer. The case offers an extraordinary glimpse into the shameful private prison industry that is flourishing in the United States.

Take the story of Jamie Quinn. When she was 14 years old, she was imprisoned for almost a year. Jamie, now 18, described the incident that led to her incarceration:

"I got into an argument with one of my friends. And all that happened was just a basic fight. She slapped me in the face, and I did the same thing back. There [were] no marks, no witnesses, nothing. It was just her word against my word."

Jamie was placed in one of the two controversial facilities, PA Child Care, then bounced around to several other locations. The 11-month imprisonment had a devastating impact on her. She told me: "People looked at me different when I came out, thought I was a bad person, because I was gone for so long. My family started splitting up ... because I was away and got locked up. I'm still struggling in school, because the schooling system in facilities like these places [are] just horrible."

She began cutting herself, blaming medication that she was forced to take: "I was never depressed, I was never put on meds before. I went there, and they just started putting meds on me, and I didn't even know what they were. They said if I didn't take them, I wasn't following my program." She was hospitalized three times.

Jamie Quinn is just one of thousands that these two corrupt judges locked up. The Philadelphia-based Juvenile Law Center got involved when Hillary Transue was sent away for three months for posting a Web site parodying the assistant principal at her school. Hillary clearly marked the Web page as a joke. The assistant principal didn't find it funny, apparently, and Hillary faced the notoriously harsh Judge Ciavarella.

continued....Jailing Kids for Cash by Amy Goodman As many as 5,000 children in Pennsylvania have been found guilty, and up to 2,000 of them... more

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3 responses

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7 months ago

The Big Lie: Why Print Media is Suffering

Conventional wisdom has it that newspapers are dying because of the rise of the Internet and the death of print media. But there... more

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7 months ago

Independent Media in an Age of Corporate Domination: An Interview with Amy Goodman

Amy Goodman, the host of Democracy Now!, and the recent recipient of the Right Livelihood Award, talks about the show's... more

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7 months ago

Expanding Nuclear Power Makes Climate Change Worse

Democracy Now! July 16, 2008 There’s one issue that President Bush and presidential hopefuls John McCain and Barack Obama... more

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7 months ago

Democracy Now! | Filmmaker Ron Howard on His New Film "Frost/Nixon"

If ya don't read anything else read this, Ron Howard on Democracy Now!, he is promoting his movie but it goes further than... more

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2 responses

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8 months ago

2 TRILLION DOLLAR Sell Out of US Taxpayers by DEMOCRATS & Bush Administration

Yes, it's already happened and Barack will do......nothing?

MuraliUSA
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2 responses

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8 months ago

What an Obama Administration will mean for Israeli-Palestinian relations

A Palestinian refugee’s open letter to Obama "Dear President-elect Barack Obama: I don’t know if you will read... more

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5 responses

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9 months ago

Grassroots Effort Helps New York Mother Avoid Foreclosure

Jocelyne Voltaire, a resident of Queens Village, New York, saw her home go up for auction after a mortgage company foreclosed. She... more

pokesmot
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3 responses

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9 months ago

Murder of independent journalist Brad Will

Mexican authorities have arrested two activists in the murder of the independent journalist Brad Will. Speculation has long centered around police officers and pro-government militants in Will’s death. Some were initially arrested in the months after the shooting, but ultimately released. But today the government is accusing two members of the popular movement APPO, the group opposed to state governor Ulises Ruiz. Will’s family has criticized the charges, calling the arrests a sham.
AMY GOODMAN: We begin today in Mexico, where two people have been arrested in the murder of the independent journalist Brad Will. Will was shot and killed on October 27, 2006, while covering the popular uprising in Oaxaca. Will’s own camera captured his shooting.
Footage filmed by Brad Will right up until the moment he was fatally shot. For our radio listeners, you can go to our website at democracynow.org to see the video footage.

Far from satisfying the calls for justice, the arrests have only inflamed the controversy.

Speculation has long centered around police officers and pro-government militants in Will’s death. Some were initially arrested in the months after the shooting, but ultimately released. But today the government is accusing two members of the popular movement APPO, the group opposed to state governor Ulises Ruiz. Will was covering their struggle when he was killed. Will’s family has criticized the charges, calling the arrests a sham. In a statement, Amnesty International also said it’s “gravely concerned” Mexican officials are ignoring critical evidence, including "state agents potentially implicated.”

John Gibler is an independent journalist who has extensively covered the uprising in Oaxaca, where he also knew Brad Will. He’s author of the forthcoming book Mexico Unconquered: Chronicles of Power and Revolt, which is out in January from City Lights Books. John Gibler joins us now from San Francisco.

John, welcome to Democracy Now! Tell us, how did these arrests happen? How did this whole story unfold to this point?
more@linkMexican authorities have arrested two activists in the murder of the independent journalist Brad Will. Speculation has long... more

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9 months ago

Report: Voter Purging Process Is Shrouded in Secrecy, Prone to Error and Vulnerable to Manipulation

A new study by the Brennan Center for Justice has found voters across the country are being purged through a process that is... more

pokesmot
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3 responses

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9 months ago

Wall St. crisis should be for Neoliberalism what fall of Berlin Wall was for Communism

As the world reels from the financial crisis on Wall Street and the taxpayer-funded $700 billion bailout, we spend the hour with... more

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9 months ago

INCA PICTURES's ARE WE STILL THE UGLY AMERICAN? Wins Accolade Competition

Los Angeles, CA September 30 2008 - Cheyenne Quintanar and Marco Aguilar, of INCA PICTURES, have won a prestigious Honorable Mention from The Accolade Competition. The award was given for Cheyenne Quintanar and Marco Aguilar's exciting political and social documentary ARE WE STILL THE UGLY AMERICAN? Which goes abroad and gives voice to people in other countries of the world to weigh in on US foreign policy, the Bush administration, the US invasion of Iraq, and the rise of anti-Americanism.

ARE WE STILL THE UGLY AMERICAN? features exceptional interviews from KRS-ONE, known as one of the most nfluential and philosophical emcees in hip-hop of our time. KRS-ONE has written three books, produced 15 albums, lectured at over 500 universities, been honored by the United Nations, VH1, and Billboard magazine, and has been recognized by prestigious schools such as Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Oxford. One of his most controversial views is that as a citizen of America, he is the Terrorist to someone else in the world.

ARE WE STILL THE UGLY AMERICAN? also features Amy Goodman, an award winning journalist, author, and host of Pacifica Radio's Democracy Now! Amy has won numerous awards for her documentary and journalism pieces, including a Robert F. Kennedy award for journalism and a George Polk award for her documentary coverage of Chevron Oil Corporation's role in the Niger Delta.She has written three books, one of which was on the New York Times bestseller list, and she is a sought after speaker. Democracy Now! is one of the most internationally syndicated programs in broadcast history today, and they continue to grow in syndication.

ARE WE STILL THE UGLY AMERICAN? affords the audience to get perspectives from everyday people from around the world about their feelings and views regarding The United States policies domestic and international, and their attitude via their actions around the world.

"Working on this project for three years and winning the Accolade film festival makes you feel like your work and the passion that you put into a subject matter, such as this, is all worth it, and that someone else gets it! Even though I have seen clips of my film numerous times while editing, when I sit down to watch it in full, I am still very emotionally moved. It gets your blood pumping, and it makes you wanna do something, you want to help change the world." - Marco Aguilar, One of the Directors, Producers, Writers and Editors of ARE WE STILL THE UGY AMERICAN?

The Accolade recognizes film, television and videography professionals, who demonstrate exceptional achievement in craft and creativity, and those who produce standout entertainment or contribute to profound social change. Entries are judged by highly qualified professionals in the film and television industry. Information about The Accolade and a list of recent winners can be found at www.theaccolade.net.

In winning an Accolade, INCA PICTURES and their directors, writers, producers; Marco Aguilar and Cheyenne Quintanar join the ranks of other high-profile winners of this internationally respected award. Thomas Baker, Ph.D., who chairs The Accolade, has this to say about the latest winners, "The Accolade is not an easy award to win. Entries are received from around the world. The Accolade helps set the standard for craft and creativity. The judges were please with the exceptionally high quality of entries. The goal for The Accolade is to help winners achieve the recognition they deserve."

For more information call Cheyenne Quintanar at 818-943-5743 or visit INCA PICTURES at www.incapictures.com.

Los Angeles, CA September 30 2008 - Cheyenne Quintanar and Marco Aguilar, of INCA PICTURES, have won a prestigious Honorable... more

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10 months ago

Charges Against Journalists at RNC Dropped; Questions Remain

Photo used with permission; original source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/theuptake/2831828326/ Free Press FOR IMMEDIATE... more

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10 months ago

Wall Street Socialists

The financial crisis gripping the U.S. has the largest banks and insurance companies begging for massive government bailouts. The banking, investment, finance and insurance industries, long the foes of taxation, now need money from working-class taxpayers to stay alive. Taxpayers should be in the driver’s seat now. Instead, decisions that will cost people for decades are being made behind closed doors, by the wealthy, by the regulators and by those they have failed to regulate.

Tuesday, the Federal Reserve and the U.S. Treasury Department agreed to a massive, $85-billion bailout of AIG, the insurance giant. This follows the abrupt bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, the 158-year-old investment bank; the distressed sale of Merrill Lynch to Bank of America; the bailout of both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac; the collapse of retail bank IndyMac; and the federally guaranteed buyout of Bear Stearns by JPMorgan Chase. AIG was deemed “too big to fail,” with 103,000 employees and more than $1 trillion in assets. According to regulators, an unruly collapse could cause global financial turmoil. U.S. taxpayers now own close to 80 percent of AIG, so the orderly sale of AIG will allow the taxpayers to recoup their money, the theory goes.

It’s not so easy.

The financial crisis will most likely deepen. More banks and giant financial institutions could collapse. Millions of people bought houses with shady subprime mortgages and have already lost or will soon lose their homes. The financiers packaged these mortgages into complex “mortgage-backed securities” and other derivative investment schemes. Investors went hog-wild, buying these derivatives with more and more borrowed money.

Nomi Prins used to run the European analytics group at Bear Stearns and also worked at Lehman Brothers. “AIG was acting not simply as an insurance company,” she told me. “It was acting as a speculative investment bank/hedge fund, as was Bear Stearns, as was Lehman Brothers, as is what will become Bank of America/Merrill Lynch. So you have a situation where it’s [the U.S. government] ... taking on the risk of items it cannot even begin to understand.”

She went on: “It’s about taking on too much leverage and borrowing to take on the risk and borrowing again and borrowing again, 25 to 30 times the amount of capital. ... They had to basically back the borrowing that they were doing. ... There was no transparency to the Fed, to the SEC, to the Treasury, to anyone who would have even bothered to look as to how much of a catastrophe was being created, so that when anything fell, whether it was the subprime mortgage or whether it was a credit complex security, it was all below a pile of immense interlocked, incestuous borrowing, and that’s what is bringing down the entire banking system.”

As these high-rolling gamblers are losing all their banks’ money, it comes to the taxpayer to bail them out. A better use of the money, says Michael Hudson, professor of economics at the University of Missouri, Kansas City, and an economic adviser to Rep. Dennis Kucinich, would be to “save these 4 million homeowners from defaulting and being kicked out of their houses. Now they’re going to be kicked out of the houses. The houses will be vacant. The cities are going to [lose] property taxes, they’re going to have to cut back local expenditures, local infrastructure. The economy is being sacrificed to pay the gamblers.”

Prins elaborated: “You’re nationalizing the worst portion of the banking system. ... You’re taking on risk you won’t be able to understand. So it’s even more dangerous.” I asked Prins, in light of all this nationalization, to comment on the prospect of nationalizing health care into a single-payer system. She responded, “You could actually put some money into something that pre-empts a problem happening and helps people get health care.”

The financial crisis gripping the U.S. has the largest banks and insurance companies begging for massive government bailouts. The... more

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10 months ago

Amy Goodman Interviewed about RNC Arrests

Personal account of misbehavior of police and secret service toward accredited journalists during RNC.

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10 months ago

St. Paul taps two to review RNC cops — but not misconduct

St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman announced late Tuesday afternoon that the city will undergo an outside review of the public safety effort tied to the Republican National Convention — but its limited scope may not satisfy calls from various quarters for independent review of police misconduct.

Leading the charge is former U.S. Attorney Tom Heffelfinger, who now works for Minneapolis law firm Best & Flanagan, and Andy Luger, previously an assistant U.S. attorney who is employed at Greene Espel in Minneapolis.

They’ll be putting a team together to perform the assessment and define its parameters, according to a statement from the mayor’s office. The timeline for the study and other details are yet to be nailed down, according to mayoral spokesman Bob Hume. He told Minnesota Independent that the city had always planned to “take a hard look at the events of the week,” but didn’t before know “what form it would take.”

“Today we basically said we would bring in a fresh set of eyes to work through the process of determining what went well and what lessons are to be learned,” said Hume.

Regarding the questions that members of the public have raised about security measures during the RNC, “We want to be able to answer those as best we can. Our feeling is these two [attorneys] will help us navigate that and will give an honest look at how things went,” he said.

But Heffelfinger is saying the team will not look into allegations of police misconduct, raising the question of whether St. Paul’s move will satisfy the various organizations and officials demanding independent reviews. An international human rights group, a national civil liberties organization and a smattering of local officials have issued calls — ranging in tone from livid to tepid — for investigations:

Amnesty International wants “city and county authorities to ensure that all allegations of ill-treatment and other abuses are impartially investigated, with a review of police tactics and weapons in the policing of demonstrations” — adding that it should be prompt and public.

The American Civil Liberties Union wants “an investigation into possible violations of the First and Fourth Amendments, including the arrest of reporters trying to gather the news; the mass arrest of hundreds of peaceful protestors; the surveillance and subsequent raids on several activist groups and private homes; and the confiscation by law enforcement agents of constitutionally-protected private property.”

Locally, St. Paul City Council Member Dave Thune has said he wants “a public airing of what went right and what went wrong.” To that end, he’s scheduled a “community conversation” on Sept. 24, 5:30 p.m., City Council chambers, to hear from interest groups — but no open mic for public testimony. He’s also is soliciting citizen comment for St. Paul’s official police “after-assessment.”

Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak wants to investigate police actions personally — “just the mayor taking a look at how the police responded to the protests,” his spokesman told MPR. The mayor is eschewing any formal review.

Minneapolis City Council Members Cam Gordon and Gary Schiff want “an independent, blue ribbon panel to conduct a thorough investigation into the events, decisions and policies surrounding security issues and the RNC, hold hearings and make recommendations for future policy changes.”

Another parochial concern that may elude Heffelfinger are Minneapolis’ guidelines of recent vintage against which Minneapolis council members intended to measure police actions during the RNC, the “police policies regarding public assemblies” that the council passed in July 25. Gordon aide Robin Garwood and Schiff agreed city police appear to have violated at least one of the 29 policies regarding treatment of the press.
St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman announced late Tuesday afternoon that the city will undergo an outside review of the public safety... more