Democracy Now!

Democracy Now! is a national, daily, independent, award-winning news program hosted by journalists Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez. Pioneering the largest public media collaboration in the US.

UN declares water a human right

May 082013
 
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MaudeBarlow

122 countries support historic Bolivian motion; Canada, USA among forty abstaining.

from Democracy Now!

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]

Transcript

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

Juan Gonzalez: The United Nations General Assembly has declared for the first time that access to clean water and sanitation is a fundamental human right. In an 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.

Nearly one billion people lack clean drinking water, and over two-and-a-half billion do not have basic sanitation.

Bolivia’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Pablo Solon, introduced the resolution at the General Assembly Wednesday….

See the whole report as Amy Goodman interviews Maude Barlow on Democracy Now.

Tell Harperites: stop muzzling scientists

Apr 072013
 
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Government secrecy leads to abuses, corruption and waste of your money.

from Democracy Watch

Under President Obama, the United States government has new policies that not only allow government scientists to speak with journalists, but allow them to call journalists and discuss their work. Conversely, in Canada, Prime Minister Harper's administration has established new policies that hide government research and valuable information Canadians have paid for. Ironically, Harper's policies are the same as those George W Bush put in place when he was President.

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GOP “rising star” fired over copyright reform memo

Mar 052013
 
 News blog

from Democracy Now

The Freedom to Connect conference has attracted people from across the political spectrum, including Derek Khanna, a "rising star" in the Republican Party, who has worked on both of Mitt Romney’s presidential campaigns. Khanna wrote a policy brief for the Republican Study Committee entitled "Three Myths About Copyright Law and Where to Start to Fix It." In it, he advocated lighter penalties for copyright infringement and an expansion of fair use, arguing that current copyright law hinders progress and runs against constitutional principles. The day after it was released, the committee retracted the report, reportedly after pressure from the entertainment industry and politicians.

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WikiLeaks whistleblower Manning wanted to “true costs of war”

Mar 042013
 
 News blog

from Democracy Now

For the first time, 25-year-old U.S. Army Private Bradley Manning has admitted to being the source behind the largest leak of state secrets in U.S. history. More than a thousand days after he was arrested, Manning testified Thursday before a military court. He said he leaked the classified documents to the whistleblowing website WikiLeaks in order to show the American public the "true costs of war."..

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Seattle’s teacher uprising: high school teachers boycott standardized tests

Feb 042013
 
 Public Values
Seattle teachers oppose the MAP test.

Test is unreliable and unfair, say teachers at Jimi Hendrix's alma mater.

from Democracy Now!

Democracynow.org reports that teachers at a Seattle-area high school attended by rock legend Jimi Hendrix have unanimously voted to boycott administering a test they say is not only an unreliable measure of students' performance, but is used unfairly to rate teachers' performance. So far, teachers are not backing down despite a threat of a 10-day suspension.
 

US becoming open-air prison – Mumia Abu-Jamal

Feb 042013
 
 News blog

from Democracy Now

In a rare live interview, Mumia Abu-Jamal calls into Democracy Now! as the new film, Long Distance Revolutionary, about his life premieres in New York City this weekend. After 29 years on death row, he is now being held in general population at the Pennsylvania State Correctional Institution — Mahanoy. "How free are we today, those who claim to be non-prisoners? Your computers are being read by others in government. Your letters, your phone calls are being intercepted," says Mumia Abu-Jamal. "We live now in a national security state, where the United States is fast becoming one of the biggest open-air prisons on earth. We can speak about freedom, and the United States has a long and distinguished history of talking about freedom, but have we exampled freedom? And I think the answer should be very clear: We have not." In 1982, Mumia was sentenced to die for killing Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner. He has always maintained his innocence and is perhaps America’s most famous political prisoner. In 2011, an appeals court upheld his conviction, but also vacated his death sentence. It found jurors were given confusing instructions…

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NRA deepens ties to $12 billion firearms industry

Jan 172013
 
 News blog

Sponsors include Beretta, Glock, Sturm, and Ruger.

from Democracy Now

Throughout its history, the National Rifle Association has portrayed itself as an advocate for individual gun owners’ Second Amendment rights. But a new investigation finds the group has come to rely on the support of the $12-billion-a-year gun industry — made up of firearms and ammunition manufacturers and sellers. Since 2005, the NRA has collected as much as $38.9 million from dozens of gun industry giants, including Beretta USA; Glock; and Sturm, Ruger & Co, according to a 2011 study by the Violence Policy Center. We speak with investigative reporter Peter Stone, whose latest article for The Huffington Post is "NRA Gun Control Crusade Reflects Firearms Industry Financial Ties."…

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NYC’s “stop and frisk” tactic illegal – federal court

Jan 112013
 
 News blog

African-American and Latino men make up a hugely disproportionate share of those stopped.

from Democracy Now

A federal judge has ruled that New York City police are not allowed to routinely stop pedestrians outside of private residential buildings in the Bronx. The stops are part of the so-called Clean Halls program, which has prompted allegations of police harassment by some residents who say they are being accosted outside of the buildings in which they live. Previous data on the New York Police Department’s "stop-and-frisk" policy has shown African-American and Latino men make up a hugely disproportionate share of those stopped. We’re joined by Molly Kovel, staff attorney with the Bronx Defenders and part of the legal team in the case, and by Abdullah Turner, a Bronx resident whose building is enrolled in the Clean Halls program and who says he was unfairly arrested while waiting for a friend inside…

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“Americans kill people” – Michael Moore

Dec 192012
 
 News blog

from Democracy Now

AMY GOODMAN: We turn now to the Oscar-winning filmmaker Michael Moore, who won that award for his 2002 documentary, Bowling for Columbine, about gun violence in the United States. On Friday night, Michael Moore appeared at the Bring Leonard Peltier Home 2012 event at the Beacon Theatre here in New York City, speaking just hours after the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre.

MICHAEL MOORE: Earlier today, a crazy man went to an elementary school and attacked 22 children in China. A few hours before Connecticut, an elementary school was attacked in China by an insane man, and 22 children were his victims. But all he had was a knife. Total number of dead in the Chinese elementary school? Zero…

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