Exiled in South Africa, Arisitide Says He Wants to Return to Haiti to “Help Rebuild the Country, Moving from Misery to Poverty with Dignity”15 Jan 2010Ousted Haitian President Jean Bertrand Aristide spoke out yesterday from exile in South Africa. “We feel deeply and profoundly that we should be there, in Haiti, with them, trying our best to prevent death,” Aristide said. “As far as we are concerned, we are ready to leave today, tomorrow, at any time, to join the people of Haiti, to share in their suffering, help rebuild the country, moving from misery to poverty with dignity.” [includes rush transcript]
Earthquake Survivors Dying as Aid Struggles to Reach Haiti15 Jan 2010The distribution of humanitarian supplies to Haiti is being hampered by infrastructure damage, blocked roads and severed communication lines. Reports are that those who survived Tuesday’s massive earthquake are now dying in huge numbers, and clean water, food and medical supplies are desperately needed. Dead bodies lie everywhere on the streets, and the Red Cross says it has run out of body bags. The Red Cross in Port-au-Prince estimates the dead at 50,000. Three million more—one third of Haiti’s population—had been hurt or left homeless. [includes rush transcript]
“Bush Was Responsible for Destroying Haitian Democracy” – Randall Robinson on Obama Tapping Bush to Co-Chair US Relief Efforts15 Jan 2010We speak with TransAfrica founder Randall Robinson, author of An Unbroken Agony: Haiti, from Revolution to the Kidnapping of a President. On President Obama tapping former President Bill Clinton and former President George W Bush to co-chair US relief efforts in Haiti, Robinson says, “Bush was responsible for destroying Haitian democracy…Clinton has largely sponsored a program of economic development that supports the idea of sweatshops… but that is not what we should focus on now. We should focus on saving lives.”
Headlines for January 15, 201015 Jan 2010Red Cross: Up to 50,000 Feared Dead in Haiti, WFP: Food Supplies Looted in Port-au-Prince, Bush to Co-Chair Haiti Relief; Cut Aid, Backed Coup Against Aristide, Aristide Seeks Return to Haiti, 16 Killed in US Drone Attack in Pakistan, 16 Killed in Afghan Bombing, Obama Proposes Bailout Tax on Wall Street, Wall Street to Pay Out Record $145B in Compensation, Record 2.8M Foreclosure Notices in 2009, Obama, Unions Agree on Taxing Insurance Plans, Study: African American Jobless Rate to Reach 25-Year High, Regulators Propose Limits on Energy Commodity Speculation
Naomi Klein Issues Haiti Disaster Capitalism Alert: Stop Them Before They Shock Again14 Jan 2010Journalist and author Naomi Klein spoke in New York last night and addressed the crisis in Haiti: “We have to be absolutely clear that this tragedy—which is part natural, part unnatural—must, under no circumstances, be used to, one, further indebt Haiti and, two, to push through unpopular corporatist policies in the interest of our corporations. This is not conspiracy theory. They have done it again and again.” [includes rush transcript]
Rep. Maxine Waters on US Response to Haiti Crisis14 Jan 2010We speak with Congress member Maxine Waters (D-CA) about the US and international aid response to Tuesday’s earthquake in Haiti. As of Thursday morning, little aid has arrived, and a desperate search for survivors continues. [includes rush transcript]
Naomi Klein Issues Haiti Disaster Capitalism Alert: Stop Them Before They Shock Again14 Jan 2010Journalist and author Naomi Klein spoke in New York last night and addressed the crisis in Haiti: “We have to be absolutely clear that this tragedy—which is part natural, part unnatural—must, under no circumstances, be used to, one, further indebt Haiti and, two, to push through unpopular corporatist policies in the interest of our corporations. This is not conspiracy theory. They have done it again and again.” [includes rush transcript]
“The Sound of Screaming Is Constant” – Haiti Devastated by Massive Earthquake, Desperate Search for Survivors Continues14 Jan 2010The death toll rises as Haiti is crushed by a massive 7.0-magnitude earthquake. Bodies lie in the streets as people continue to cry out from underneath the rubble. Little aid has come in as the situation becomes increasingly desperate. The number of dead is almost certainly in the tens of thousands but could be 100,000 or more. We go to Port-au-Prince to get a report from a young American father who is helping to care for the injured in the hotel where he was staying when the quake struck. [includes rush transcript]
Rep. Maxine Waters on US Response to Haiti Crisis14 Jan 2010We speak with Congress member Maxine Waters (D-CA) about the US and international aid response to Tuesday’s earthquake in Haiti. As of Thursday morning, little aid has arrived, and a desperate search for survivors continues. [includes rush transcript]
Rep. Maxine Waters on US Response to Haiti Crisis14 Jan 2010We speak with Congress member Maxine Waters (D-CA) about the US and international aid response to Tuesday’s earthquake in Haiti. As of Thursday morning, little aid has arrived, and a desperate search for survivors continues.
Naomi Klein Issues Haiti Disaster Capitalism Alert: Stop Them Before They Shock Again14 Jan 2010Journalist and author Naomi Klein spoke in New York last night and addressed the crisis in Haiti: “We have to be absolutely clear that this tragedy—which is part natural, part unnatural—must, under no circumstances, be used to, one, further indebt Haiti and, two, to push through unpopular corporatist policies in the interest of our corporations. This is not conspiracy theory. They have done it again and again.”
Report from Haiti: Desperate Call for Aid with Rescue Equipment, Medicine, Food & Water in Short Supply14 Jan 2010Much of the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince has been leveled by Tuesday’s earthquake, leaving as many as 100,000 people dead and tens of thousands of people homeless. As of Thursday morning, little aid has arrived in Haiti. Planeloads of rescuers and relief supplies are said to be on the way from the US, EU, Canada, Russia and Latin American nations. We go to Port-au-Prince to speak with independent journalist Ansel Herz. [includes rush transcript]
“The Sound of Screaming Is Constant” – Haiti Devastated by Massive Earthquake, Desperate Search for Survivors Continues14 Jan 2010The death toll rises as Haiti is crushed by a massive 7.0-magnitude earthquake. Bodies lie in the streets as people continue to cry out from underneath the rubble. Little aid has come in as the situation becomes increasingly desperate. The number of dead is almost certainly in the tens of thousands but could be 100,000 or more. We go to Port-au-Prince to get a report from a young American father who is helping to care for the injured in the hotel where he was staying when the quake struck. [includes rush transcript]
Headlines for January 14, 201014 Jan 2010Tens of Thousands Feared Dead Amidst Haiti Devastation, Afghan Civilians Suffered Deadliest Year in 2009, Banking Execs Appear Before Financial Crisis Panel, Supreme Court Bars Airing of Prop 8 Trial, Peace Activists File Civil Suit over Military Spying, US Climate Envoy Blames ALBA for Copenhagen Failure, Backs Sidelining UN, Anti-Wall Palestinian Activists Freed from Israeli Prison, Israel Bars US Journalist From Entry, Judge Rules NY Fire Department Intentionally Discriminated Against Black Applicants
ICE Officials Accused of Covering Up Immigrant Deaths in Detention13 Jan 2010The Obama administration has promised to overhaul immigration detention. But a scathing report in the New York Times last weekend reveals that federal officials used their role as overseers to prevent media from reporting deaths and abuses inside the nation’s immigration prisons. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, now admits 107 immigrants died in ICE custody since October 2003, but for years the deaths went uncounted in the public record.
Haiti Devastated by Largest Earthquake in 200 Years, Thousands Feared Dead13 Jan 2010Haiti has been devastated by a massive 7.0-magnitude earthquake, the largest to strike the Caribbean nation in more than two centuries. Buildings have collapsed. Fires rage in the streets. The extent of the disaster is still unknown, but there are fears thousands of people may have died and tens of thousands homeless. We get the latest on Haiti, a country rocked by natural as well as political crises. We speak with journalist Kim Ives of Haiti Libert and Haitian American novelist Edwidge Danticat, her family at the epicenter of the quake. [includes rush transcript – partial]
Headlines for January 13, 201013 Jan 2010Thousands Feared Dead in Massive Haiti Earthquake, Witnesses: NATO Troops Kill Afghan Protesters, 2 US Troops, 4 Afghan Soldiers Killed in Attacks, 16 Killed in US Drone Attack in Afghanistan, Report: Obama to Request $33B for Wars, Obama, Dems to Meet on Healthcare Bill, Insurance Firms Funded Anti-Healthcare Reform Ad Blitz, Obama Received Over $20M from Health Industry in ‘08, FDIC Calls for Penalizing Risky Compensation, Regulators Accuse BoA of Hiding Merrill Losses, 1 in 8 Americans Receiving Food Stamps, Study Links Monsanto GM Corn to Organ Failure, Activists Protest Carbon Trading Summit, Google to End China Censorship, Japan Delays Decision on Moving US Base, Israel Arrests Anti-Wall Activists, Miep Gies Dies at 100
Despite a US Supreme Court Ban, Texas Continues to Send Mentally Retarded Criminals to Death Row12 Jan 2010A 2002 Supreme Court ruling allowed states to set their own definitions of mental retardation to decide who meets the criteria for execution. Instead of adopting the Supreme Court’s accepted clinical standards for mental retardation, Texas has granted heavy leeway to psychologist evaluations. Now one psychologist, George Denkowski, is facing scrutiny over methods that critics say unfairly send mentally retarded prisoners to death row. For more, we go to a report from Rene Feltz for the Texas Observer.
Raj Patel on “The Value of Nothing: How to Reshape Market Society and Redefine Democracy”12 Jan 2010Author and activist Raj Patel joins us to discuss his new book, The Value of Nothing: How to Reshape Market Society and Redefine Democracy. “We’ve come to believe that the only way we can value things is by sticking them in a market,” Patel says. “The trouble is, as we’ve seen through this recession, that markets are a tremendously bad way of valuing things, tremendously fickle.”
Prosecutors Target Northwestern Journalism Students Working on Exonerating Wrongfully Convicted Prisoners12 Jan 2010Prosecutors in Chicago are targeting a group of Northwestern University journalism students who have helped exonerate eleven wrongfully convicted prisoners, including five on death row. Cook County prosecutors have subpoenaed Northwestern and the Medill Innocence Project to hand over student grades, grading criteria, class syllabi, expense reports and email messages. Prosecutors are focusing on the students who conducted a three-year investigation into Anthony McKinney, who was convicted of fatally shooting a security guard in 1978. A judge is now reviewing McKinney?s case. [includes rush transcript]
Federal Appeals Court Hears Arguments in Landmark Apartheid Reparations Case12 Jan 2010A landmark case against several international corporations accused of aiding South Africa?s apartheid regime is underway. The companies include Daimler AG, General Motors, Ford Motor Company and IBM. They are accused in a class-action lawsuit of complicity in human rights abuses during the years they did business in apartheid South Africa. The suit was filed several years ago by black victims of white minority rule. Their lawyers are seeking up to $400 billion in compensation. [includes rush transcript]
Headlines for January 12, 201012 Jan 2010Iranian Nuclear Physicist Assassinated in Tehran, Yemeni Cleric Warns Against ?Foreign Occupation?, White House Considers New Tax on Large Banks, Federal Reserve Refuses to Release Details about Bailed-Out Banks, Federal Reserve Made $45 Billion in 2009, Federal Trial on Same-Sex Marriage Ban Begins in California, Pope Calls Gay Marriage an “Attack on Creation”, Six Foreign Troops Die in Afghanistan, Suicide Rate for Veterans Jumps 26 Percent, European Doctor: Big Pharma Exaggerated Threat of Swine Flu, Nigerian Leader Breaks Silence, Trial of Killer of Abortion Provider George Tiller Set to Begin, NJ Lawmakers OK Medical Marijuana Bill, Fox News Hires Sarah Palin, Single-Payer Activists Call Democrats to Allow C-SPAN to Air Healthcare Negotiations, Hunger Strikers Call for Closure of Guantanamo
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