As ThinkProgress noted, Fox News ignored the controversy over the killing of Trayvon Martin at first, even after every other network was covering it, but maybe they were better off not covering the issue than what they’re doing now.
democracynow.org - Occupy Wall Street activist Cecily McMillan suffered a seizure when New York City police officers pulled her from the crowd and arrested her as hundreds attempted to re-occupy Zuccotti Park on Saturday, to mark sixth months since the launch of the movement. In her first television interview since her arrest, McMillan says she has decided to speak out because of an outpouring of public support. "I have received so many emails, Twitter messages and phone calls.
democracynow.org - In his new article, "Bank of America: Too Crooked to Fail," Rolling Stone reporter Matt Taibbi chronicles the remarkable history of the rise of Bank of America -- an institution he says has defrauded "everyone from investors and insurers to homeowners and the unemployed." Taibbi describes how the Bush and Obama administrations have repeatedly propped up the financial institution, which received a $45 billion taxpayer bailout in 2008. Bank of America has also received billions in what could be described as shadow bailouts.
democracynow.org - A new exposé in Wired Magazine reveals details about how the National Security Agency is quietly building the largest spy center in the country in Bluffdale, Utah, as part of a secret NSA surveillance program code-named "Stellar Wind." We speak with investigative reporter James Bamford who says the NSA has established listening posts throughout the nation to collect and sift through billions of email messages and phone calls, whether they originate within the country or overseas.
democracynow.org - The Justice Department and the FBI have announced they will conduct a criminal probe of the killing of unarmed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin and the ensuing police investigation that allowed his killer to walk free. Martin, an African-American student at Michael Krop Senior High School, was visiting his father in a gated community in the town of Sanford, Florida, on February 26 when he walked out to a nearby convenience store to buy candy and iced tea. On his way back, Martin was spotted by the shooter, George Zimmerman, who had been patrolling the neighborhood.
democracynow.org - Michael Moore led hundreds of people from the Left Forum conference to Zuccotti Park on Saturday where hundreds had gathered to re-occupy the park to mark six months since the launch of the Occupy Wall Street movement, which began last September and launched protests around the world that gave voice to "the 99 percent." That night, New York City police officers cleared the park making at least 73 arrests. Many people reported excessive use of force by officers, several cases were caught on camera.
democracynow.org - We speak with journalist Neil Shea, who has reported on Afghanistan and Iraq since 2006 for the Stars and Stripes and other publications. Shea discusses his experiences witnessing disturbing behavior during his travels with US troops in Afghanistan and offers insight into understanding the massacre of 16 Afghan civilians. "When we cycle our soldiers and Marines through wars that don't really have a clear purpose over years and years, we expect light-switch control over their aggression," Shea says.
democracynow.org - The Obama administration is facing scrutiny for its role in the imprisonment of a Yemeni journalist who exposed how the United States was behind a 2009 bombing in Yemen that killed 14 women and 21 children. In January 2011, a Yemeni state security court gave the journalist, Abdulelah Haider Shaye, a five-year jail sentence on terrorism-related charges following a disputed trial that was condemned by several human rights and press freedom groups. Within a month of Shaye's sentencing, then-Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh announced he was going to pardon the journalist.
democracynow.org - The Obama administration is facing scrutiny for its role in the imprisonment of a Yemeni journalist who exposed how the United States was behind a 2009 bombing in Yemen that killed 14 women and 21 children. In January 2011, a Yemeni state security court gave the journalist, Abdulelah Haider Shaye, a five-year jail sentence on terrorism-related charges following a disputed trial that was condemned by several human rights and press freedom groups. Within a month of Shaye's sentencing, then-Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh announced he was going to pardon the journalist.
Written with bracing wit and intelligence, Rachel Maddow's Drift: The Unmooring of American Military Power argues that we've drifted away from America's original ideals and become a nation weirdly at peace with
democracynow.org - As President Obama vowed to "spare no effort" to fully investigate the Afghan massacre on Tuesday, hundreds of students in eastern Afghanistan protested against the United States. Many called for an end to the US occupation in their country. We go to Kabul to speak with New York Times correspondent Graham Bowley, who reported on the surviving relatives of victims of the Afghan massacre, including Abdul Samad, who lost his wife, four daughters, four sons and two other relatives. "This is a very war-torn area and very poor," Bowley says.
democracynow.org - US lawmakers want the Pentagon to explain why the soldier accused in the massacre of 16 Afghan villagers was sent back into combat after suffering a traumatic brain injury in Iraq. We look at whether soldiers are receiving the mental health treatment they need with Kevin Baker, an Iraq War veteran struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder from the same base as the Afghan shooting suspect, Joint Base Lewis-McChord. "It's not an isolated incident. It's not unique to Fort Lewis. This is a military-wide epidemic," Baker says.
democracynow.org - We go to Kabul to speak with an Afghan peace activist about the shooting spree by an US Army sergeant in Afghanistan, which killed 16 Afghan civilians, nine of them children. Calls for a more rapid withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan have escalated after the US soldier reportedly walked more than a mile from his base, breaking in to three separate houses to attack families as they slept. Villagers say he then gathered 11 bodies and set them on fire, including the bodies of four girls younger than six.
DemocracyNow.org - This is a summary of news headlines from the United States and around the world as reported by Democracy Now! on Monday, March 12. To watch the complete daily, independent news hour, read the transcript or download the podcast, visit www.democracynow.org. FOLLOW DEMOCRACY NOW!
democracynow.org - As Vice President Joe Biden wraps up a trip to Central America insisting the drug war must continue, a growing number of Latin American leaders are calling for the decriminalization or legalization of drugs. "This debate now is no longer going to be suppressed," says Ethan Nadelmann, founder and executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance.
democracynow.org - We speak with Nada Bakri, the widow of Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Anthony Shadid, about her husband's passion for covering the Middle East and his posthumous memoir. "House of Stone: A Memoir of Home, Family, and a Lost Middle East" chronicles Shadid's rebuilding of his family's ancestral home in Lebanon. "He felt like [the Arab Spring] is a dream come true for every journalist covering the Middle East," Bakri says.
democracynow.org - The Republican presidential race appears headed for the long haul after the "Super Tuesday" slate of primaries failed to produce a decisive winner. Mitt Romney won six states, including what appears to be a slim victory over Rick Santorum in the main battleground state of Ohio. Santorum won three states, while Newt Gingrich won his home state of Georgia. Romney currently enjoys a sizable lead in delegates, with around one-third of the number needed for the nomination. "Nothing was settled last night, far from it.
democracynow.org - Representative Donald Payne, the first ever African-American congressman from New Jersey, died Tuesday at the age of 77 from complications of colon cancer. The former chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus was in his tweleveth term in the House. In 1988, Payne explained his desire to break the colorline in Congress saying, "I want to be a congressman to serve as a role model for the young people I talk to on the Newark street corners ... I want them to see there are no barriers to achievement.
democracynow.org - New arrests have been made in the crackdown on a loose, large network of politically inspired "hacktivists." On Tuesday, four men in Britain and Ireland were charged with computer crimes; a fifth man was arrested Monday in Chicago. They were part of a group called "LulzSec" affiliated with Anonymous, which has taken credit for a number of cyber-raids against corporations, political parties and governments. In a shocking revelation, the hacktivists may have been turned in by none other than the group's own leader.
democracynow.org - Using armed drones, President Obama has overseen the targeted killing of at least three US civilians overseas — more than President Bush did in his eight years in office. Are the killings legal?
democracynow.org - Investigative journalists Greg Palast and Antonia Juhasz examine who wins and who loses in BP's settlement. "[BP's] basically being told, like a bank robber -- you put the money back and everything will be forgiven," says Palast, who also investigated the Exxon Valdez settlement. Meanwhile, state and federal governments are still pursuing separate civil claims against BP for environmental damage.
DemocracyNow.org - This is a summary of news headlines from the United States and around the world as reported by Democracy Now! on Monday, March 5, 2012. To watch the complete daily, independent news hour, read the transcript or download the podcast, visit www.democracynow.org. FOLLOW DEMOCRACY NOW!
