Former Sen. John Edwards was supposed to speak in Denver at the Democratic National Convention, but he had an affair. Will the Democrats now forget about his signature issue?
Filed under Weekly Column
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is on a book tour, where she is being hounded by activists and questioned about her pledge that “impeachment is off the table.” She responded on the TV talk show “The View,” “If somebody had a crime that the president had committed, that would be a different story.” Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ron Suskind may have provided the evidence she doesn’t want to see.
Filed under Weekly Column
Open opposition, the right to challenge those in power, is a mainstay of any healthy democracy. The Democratic and Republican conventions will test the commitment of the two dominant U.S. political parties to the cherished tradition of dissent. Things are not looking good.
Filed under Weekly Column
Rep. Gene Green (D–TX) is calling on the Pentagon to explain why a military recruiter was given a promotion despite being found to have illegally threatened a teenage boy with jail time if he decided to go to college instead of joining the military. The recruiter was eventually promoted to head a different recruiting station. Green sent the letter questioning Kelt’s new job after his Wednesday appearance on Democracy Now!
Filed under D.N. in the News
With no end in sight in Afghanistan and Iraq, military recruiters must be prevented from using desperate and aggressive measures to lure our nation’s young people—the poorest and most vulnerable—into the line of fire.
Filed under Weekly Column
Amy Goodman reports from the Baltics: “When I arrived in Estonia last week—a former Soviet republic that lies just south of Finland—everyone had an opinion on Barack Obama’s speech in Berlin.”
Filed under Weekly Column
The nominating conventions have become elaborate, expensive marketing events, but most people don’t know the extent to which major corporations fund them, pouring tens of millions of dollars into a little-known loophole in the campaign-finance system.
Filed under Weekly Column
While the presidential candidates trade barbs and accuse each other of flip-flopping, they agree with President Bush on their enthusiastic support for nuclear power.
Filed under Weekly Column
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The Center for Constitutional Rights is filing a lawsuit today under the Alien Tort Claims Act on behalf of the families of three of the Iraqis killed, as well as another Iraqi who was injured, when Blackwater guards shot dead 17 Iraqis and injured many more. We speak with CCR attorney Susan Burke and Democracy Now! correspondent Jeremy Scahill, author of the bestselling book “Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army.” [includes rush transcript]
Janessa Gans was guarded by Blackwater guards during her two years in Iraq as a U.S. official. Asked about Iraqi efforts to remove Blackwater, she says: “I was surprised it had taken this long.” [includes rush transcript]
In 2004, three Army soldiers and three Blackwater employees died when a plane operated by a Blackwater subsidiary crashed in Afghanistan. The families of the soldiers filed a wrongful death suit. Blackwater has claimed the lawsuit should be dismissed, but last week three judges on the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta rejected that argument. We speak to the families’ attorney, Robert Spohrer. [includes rush transcript]
Clive Stafford Smith is the legal director of the UK charity Reprieve and represents more than 50 prisoners in Guantanamo Bay. He is the author of a new book detailing the inside story of life in what he describes as the “flagship” of secret prisons, “Eight O’Clock Ferry to the Windward Side: Seeking Justice in Guantanamo Bay.” [includes rush transcript]