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A daily TV/radio news program, hosted by Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez, airing on over 800 stations, pioneering the largest community media collaboration in the U.S.
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Google Teams Up with CIA to Fund "Recorded Future" Startup Monitoring Websites, Blogs & Twitter Accounts

Fri, 07/30/2010 - 05:48

Investors at the CIA and Google are backing a company called "Recorded Future" that monitors tens of thousands of websites, blogs and Twitter accounts in real time in order to find patterns, events and relationships that may predict the future. The news comes amidst Google’s so-called "Wi-Spy" scandal, that refers to revelations that Google’s Street View cars operating in some thirty countries snooped on private Wi-Fi networks over the last three years. [includes rush transcript]

Categories: Current Events

Dave Zirin on "Bad Sports: How Owners Are Ruining the Games We Love"

Fri, 07/30/2010 - 05:38

The world of professional sports is certainly not immune to the heated debates over Arizona’s anti-immigration legislation and the growing calls for a nationwide boycott of Arizona. In New York, a rally is planned tonight outside Citi Field in Queens, where baseball’s Arizona Diamondbacks will play the New York Mets. We speak with sportswriter Dave Zirin about his new book, Bad Sports: How Owners Are Ruining the Games We Love. [includes rush transcript]

Categories: Current Events

Dozens of Immigrant Rights Activists Arrested in Arizona

Fri, 07/30/2010 - 05:29

At least fifty people were arrested in Arizona yesterday in protests against the state’s new anti-immigrant law. The law went into effect on Thursday, but not before a federal judge blocked four key parts of the legislation. One of the biggest protests occurred in Phoenix outside of the Fourth Avenue Jail run by Sheriff Joe Arpaio. We speak with Carlos Garcia, lead organizer for the Puente Movement. [includes rush transcript]

Categories: Current Events

Obama Defends Sweeping Education Reforms in Face of Criticism from Minority and Teachers' Groups

Fri, 07/30/2010 - 05:11

President Obama took on critics of his administration’s sweeping education reform plan on Thursday in a nearly hour-long speech at the National Urban League’s 100th anniversary convention. His address came on the heels of news that New York public school students are not performing nearly as well as prior state tests had revealed. We speak with Diane Ravitch, the former Assistant Secretary of Education under George H.W. Bush, and Leonie Haimson, executive director of Class Size Matters. [includes rush transcript]

Categories: Current Events

In Historic Vote, UN DeclaresWater a Fundamental Human Right

Thu, 07/29/2010 - 05:45

The United Nations General Assembly has declared for the first time that access to clean water and sanitation is a fundamental human right. In a historic vote Wednesday, 122 countries supported the resolution, and over forty countries abstained from voting, including the United States, Canada and several European and other industrialized countries. There were no votes against the resolution. We speak with longtime water justice activist, Maude Barlow. [includes rush transcript]

Categories: Current Events

Patrick Cockburn on Missing Billions in Iraq and Soaring Cancer & Infant Mortality Rates in Fallujah

Thu, 07/29/2010 - 05:32

In Iraq, an official audit by the US Special Investigator for Iraq Reconstruction found that the Pentagon cannot account for almost $9 billion taken from Iraqi oil revenues between 2004 and 2007 for use in reconstruction. Meanwhile, a new medical study has found dramatic increases in infant mortality, cancer and leukemia in the Iraqi city of Fallujah, which was bombarded by US Marines in 2004. We speak with Patrick Cockburn, Middle East correspondent for the London Independent. [includes rush transcript]

Categories: Current Events

On Eve of Major Protests, Federal Judge Blocks Key Provisions of Arizona Anti-Immigrant Law

Thu, 07/29/2010 - 05:11

A federal judge in Phoenix blocked key provisions of Arizona’s notorious anti-immigrant law on Wednesday, hours before it was scheduled to take effect. US District Judge Susan Bolton ruled a partial injunction would apply to the portion of the law that requires police officers to stop and interrogate anyone they suspect is an undocumented immigrant. The law sparked mass protests across the country and a boycott of Arizona. We speak with Isabel Garcia, co-chair of the Tucson-based Coalition for Human Rights. [includes rush transcript]

Categories: Current Events

WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange: "Transparent Government Tends to Produce Just Government"

Wed, 07/28/2010 - 05:11

We spend the hour with Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, talking about the biggest leak in US history: the release of more than 91,000 classified military records on the war in Afghanistan. As the Pentagon announces it is launching a criminal probe into who leaked the documents, Assange asks what about investigating the "war crimes" revealed in the leaked military records? He also talks about the media, why he isn’t coming to the US anytime soon, and what gives him hope. "What keeps us going is our sources. These are the people, presumably, who are inside these organizations, who want change," Assange says. "They are both heroic figures taking much greater risks than I ever do, and they are pushing and showing that they want change in, in fact, an extremely effective way." [includes rush transcript]

Categories: Current Events

"WikiLeaks Is Not One Person...We Are All the Threat" - Hacker Magazine Editor Says WikiLeaks Is Bigger Than Julian Assange

Tue, 07/27/2010 - 05:42

We speak to Emmanuel Goldstein, a well-known figure in the hacker community and the editor of the magazine 2600: The Hacker Quarterly. He is also the organizer of the HOPE conference. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange had been slated to be the keynote speaker at the most recent conference. Federal agents were there waiting for him, but Assange didn’t show. [includes rush transcript]

Categories: Current Events

_Guardian_ Editor on Coverage of Afghan War Logs: European Audience "Troubled More...by the Toll this War is Taking on Innocent People"

Tue, 07/27/2010 - 05:22

We speak with David Leigh, the investigations editor at The Guardian, one of the three newspapers, along with the New York Times and Der Spiegel, WikiLeaks gave the Afghanistan war documents to. "Broadly, we see a similar picture in the three media. What we do see is quite a different political perspective. From the New York Times’s point of view...it was interesting to see that the relationship with Pakistan was a political priority," Leigh says. "With us, we’re more concerned about the casualties, I think. We’re troubled more, a European audience, by the toll this war is taking on innocent people." [includes rush transcript]

Categories: Current Events

WikiLeaks Founder Says "Evidence of War Crimes" in Afghan War Logs, White House Downplays Leak, Claiming "No Broad New Revelations"

Tue, 07/27/2010 - 05:11

The disclosure of a massive trove of classified military records documenting the Afghanistan war has ignited a firestorm and increased pressure on the White House to defend its military strategy. We play highlights of the White House press conference in Washington and Julian Assange’s press conference in London. [includes rush transcript]

Categories: Current Events

The New Pentagon Papers: WikiLeaks Releases 90,000+ Secret Military Documents Painting Devastating Picture of Afghanistan War

Mon, 07/26/2010 - 05:08

It’s one of the biggest leaks in US military history. More than 90,000 internal records of US military actions in Afghanistan over the past six years have been published by the whistleblower website WikiLeaks. The documents provide a devastating portrait of the war in Afghanistan, revealing how coalition forces have killed hundreds of civilians in unreported incidents, how a secret black ops special forces unit hunts down targets for assassination or detention without trial, how Taliban attacks have soared, and how Pakistan is fueling the insurgency. We host a roundtable discussion with independent British journalist Stephen Grey; Pentagon Papers whistleblower, Daniel Ellsberg; former State Department official in Afghanistan, Matthew Hoh; independent journalist Rick Rowley; and investigative historian Gareth Porter. [includes rush transcript]

Categories: Current Events

"Reclaiming the Democratic Majority" - Progressive Activists Organize to Change Democrats in Congress

Fri, 07/23/2010 - 05:50

Many progressives helped to elect Democratic majorities in Congress in 2006 and 2008 and helped Obama win the presidency. But with the Democrats in power, the feeling now among many grassroots activists is that most Democratic lawmakers have not acted on behalf of their progressive constituencies. We speak with two progressive activists: Ilyse Hogue of MoveOn.Org, and Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee. [includes rush transcript]

Categories: Current Events

Using Social Media to Build Community...and Resistance

Fri, 07/23/2010 - 05:30

We broadcast from Las Vegas, the site of the Netroots Nation convention, where thousands of people have gathered and social media is the watchword of the day. We host a roundtable discussion on social media with Aimee Allison, founder of OaklandSeen; hip-hop journalist and activist, Davey D; and Cheryl Contee, aka Jill Tubman, co-founder of the political blog "Jack and Jill Politics." [includes rush transcript]

Categories: Current Events

Manchin Appointing Fmr. Aide to Replace Byrd "Kabuki Theater Politics" to "Make Sure Coal's Will Be Done in the Senate"

Fri, 07/23/2010 - 05:25

Governor Joe Manchin recently appointed former chief counsel Carte Goodwin to succeed US Senator Robert Byrd. We take a look at what the move means and issues surrounding mountaintop removal in Appalachia with Bob Kincaid, an internet broadcaster with the Head On Radio Network and a progressive voice from the Appalachian coalfields. [includes rush transcript]

Categories: Current Events

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