Diana Buttu: direct talks bound to fail
Electronic Intifada - 30 Aug 2010
rr r r r rr r rr r rr r rr rr rrr rAs US officials arrived in Jerusalem last week to meet with Palestinian Authority and Israeli government officials, The Electronic Intifada interviewed Ramallah-based lawyer and former PLO advisor Diana Buttu about this week’s US-brokered direct talks between the two parties.

“Solidarity tastes different inside prison”
Electronic Intifada - 30 Aug 2010
rr r r r rr r rr r rr r rr rr rrr r”My human dignity, basic human rights and constitutional rights are suffering from basic violations. I still have no permit to meet my lawyers without being recorded.” The Electronic Intifada publishes an edited excerpt from a 7 August 2010 letter written by Ameer Makhoul from Israeli prison.

Displaced New Orleans Poet Sunni Patterson: I Will Be a “Cultural Ambassador to Bring a Light to Every Injustice”
Democracy Now - 30 Aug 2010
We go to New Orleans to speak with poet and performer Sunni Patterson. She’s from the Lower Ninth Ward, but like thousands of the city’s residents has been forced to live outside and is now based in Houston, Texas.

Community & Resistance After Katrina: Jordan Flaherty and Tracie Washington on the Fight to Save New Orleans
Democracy Now - 30 Aug 2010
President Obama visited New Orleans on Sunday and praised the recovery of the city and the resilience of its people five years after Hurricane Katrina. We talk to lifelong New Orleans resident and civil rights attorney, Tracie Washington, and Jordan Flaherty, a community organizer and author of Floodlines: Community and Resistance from Katrina to the Jena Six.

Remembering Hurricane Katrina: Voices from the Storm
Democracy Now - 30 Aug 2010
This Sunday marked the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Early on the morning of August 29th, 2005, the storm slammed into the Gulf Coast, just south of New Orleans. It ravaged the coasts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama and left over 1,800 people dead. Eighty percent of the city of New Orleans was under water after the levees failed. We go back to 2005 to air some of the voices from New Orleans in the aftermath of the storm. [includes rush transcript]

“The Big Uneasy” – In New Doc, Harry Shearer Makes the Case that Katrina Was an Unnatural Disaster
Democracy Now - 30 Aug 2010
On the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, a new documentary, The Big Uneasy, argues that the destruction of New Orleans was an unnatural disaster and how it could have been prevented. We speak with the filmmaker: actor and satirist Harry Shearer. [includes rush transcript]

Headlines for August 30, 2010
Democracy Now - 30 Aug 2010
Fire Set at Site of Future Mosque in Tennessee, Mexican Mayor Killed in Border State, FDA to Begin Inspections of Factory Egg Farms, UN Report Accuses Rwandan Troops of Committing Genocide in the Congo, Flooding Continue in Pakistan, a Month After Disaster Began, Influential Israel Rabbi: Palestinians Should Perish with a Plague, Glenn Beck Hosts Rally on Anniversary of MLK’s March on Washington, Youth Unemployment Reaches Record Level, Heavily Armed Army Veteran Shot Dead in Utah

“Once winter’s over, the sun will shine”
Electronic Intifada - 30 Aug 2010
rr r r rr r rr r rr r rr r rr rrr rWhen Israel’s construction of the wall began in their village May 2008, the people of Nilin embarked on a campaign of unarmed grassroots resistance against the theft of their land. They have followed a philosophy of direct action, cutting through the electronic fence and razor wire on an almost weekly basis. Jody McIntyre interviewed Mohammed Amireh, a leader of the Nilin Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements for The Electronic Intifada.

Art as resistance: “Against the Wall” reviewed
Electronic Intifada - 30 Aug 2010
rr r r r rr r rr r rr r rr rr rrr rLondon-based journalist and photographer William Parry’s Against the Wall serves as both a political and aesthetic document, perhaps exemplifying the German philosopher Walter Benjamin’s famous thesis that ”[t]here is no document of culture that is not at the same time a document of barbarism.”