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GRITtv: Real News Network: Tuscon's Ethnic Studies Fight

Obama travels to El Paso today as part of a campaign to win back Latino voters, many of whom are still waiting for Obama to make good on his last campaign promise of immigration reform. At the same time the glad handing and photo ops are taking place, in nearby Tuscon Arizona there's a new front to the war on immigration where students are fighting the Board of Education to preserve a historically successful ethnic studies program. Here's a report from the Real News Network.

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GRITtv: May 10, 2011

"The USA has got to join the rest of the industrialized world and guarantee health care to everyone as a right, not a privilege," says Senator Bernie Sanders, who this week is introducing a new bill in Congress that would provide a single-payer health care system, administered at the state level, that would treat health care as a human right. Sanders' home state of Vermont is on its way to being the first state in the country with a single-payer plan, but he notes that all Americans should have that same right. Senator Sanders joins Laura from Washington, D.C. via Skype to explain his bill, why it matters, and why he thinks Vermont can lead the nation to a better health system. Obama travels to El Paso today as part of a campaign to win back Latino voters, many of whom are still waiting for Obama to make good on his last campaign promise of immigration reform. At the same time the glad handing and photo ops are taking place, in nearby Tuscon Arizona there's a new front to the war on immigration where students are fighting the Board of Ed to preserve a historically successful ethnic studies program. Here's a report from the Real News Network. World War I was called "the war to end all wars," but nearly 100 years later, war is far from over. Adam Hochschild, co-founder of Mother Jones magazine, has written a new book looking back at that war and specifically, those who objected to and fought against the Great War. Adam joins Laura in studio to discuss World War I, the anti-war movement then and now, and why we're still struggling to articulate an opposition to war that will successfully end all wars. Distributed by Tubemogul.

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GRITtv: Got Docs: Two Americans

A 9-year-old child faces down Sheriff Joe Arpaio in this week's featured documentary, Two Americans. Katherine Figueroa is a US citizen born to immigrant parents, and when Arpaio targets them for deportation, she becomes the center of a fight against the sheriff's plans. In Arizona, the immigration battle has its ground zero, and this documentary follows the people at the center of it all.

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GRITtv: April 29, 2011

"The American people should see that corporations have abandoned them long ago," says scientist, environmentalist, and food justice activist Dr. Vandana Shiva, named one of the seven most influential women in the world by Forbes magazine. "The people will have to rebuild democracy as a living democracy." Dr. Shiva has been fighting corporate takeover in every area in her native India, combating a nuclear plant one week and patented, genetically modified seeds another. She joins Laura in studio to advise American activists how they can fight the merging of corporations and government here at home and around the world. A 9-year-old child faces down Sheriff Joe Arpaio in this week's featured documentary, Two Americans. Katherine Figueroa is a US citizen born to immigrant parents, and when Arpaio targets them for deportation, she becomes the center of a fight against the sheriff's plans. In Arizona, the immigration battle has its ground zero, and this documentary follows the people at the center of it all. Singer-songwriter Phoebe Snow died this week at the age of 58. Her powerful voice will certainly be missed, and we bring you this performance of her classic hit "Poetry Man" to remember her too-often forgotten work. Distributed by Tubemogul.

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GRITtv: March 30, 2011

"It's a targeting of workers' abilities to come together against big companies," says Columbia University professor Dorian Warren of the Walmart v. Duke case. The Supreme Court heard oral arguments from both sides on whether a class-action lawsuit that pits female employees since 1998 against the corporate giant Wal-Mart will be permitted. Plaintiffs say that the level of gender discrimination is so entrenched that is has become part of the corporate culture. A class-action lawsuit would ensure that workers have the resources and voice to take on an opponent as formidable as the world's largest retail chain. If the decision to block a class-action suit is made, workers will be left with individual lawsuits and few other options. And, more GOP maneuvering in Wisconsin: the state GOP, with Koch backing, have issued a FOIA request for the email address of several UW Madison professors. They would like to prove that state email addresses were used for illegal lobbying after professor William Cronon published a blog outlining the role of the conservative think-tank American Legislative Exchange Council in drafting legislation around the country. "We know that two-thirds of corporations in the U.S. pay no taxes at all. General Electric was not only paying no taxes but taking a three billion dollar tax benefit," notes Josh Holland, editor & senior writer at AlterNet and author of The Fifteen Biggest Lies about the Economy. And while corporations are finagling their way out of paying taxes, working people still have no money to spend to keep the economy moving--and thus the recession goes on. Josh joins Laura in studio to talk about taxes and other lies politicians tell about the economy. Sleeping in the statehouse, takin' it to the streets--this generation of students is getting a great education, at least outside of the classroom. Last week a group of San Francisco students and educators turned out to protest Governor Jerry Brown's cuts. These may be some of the youngest movement leaders we've seen to date. This video courtesy of Openline Media and voiced by our friend, Davey D. Finally, Sheriff Joe Arpaio's latest anti-immigrant plan? Arming his volunteer posse and sending them up in planes to hunt for immigrants and drug smugglers. Laura asks if it's time for a no-fly zone over Arizona. Distributed by Tubemogul.

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GRITtv: The F Word: Bring the No-Fly Zone Home to Arizona

Could Obama and his supporters take a break from celebrating so-called no-fly zones -- and take a look at what's happening in Arizona? Qaddafi, after all, isn't the only one using military technology against his own people. Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, Arizona, has launched "Operation Desert Sky" to round up "illegal drugs and human cargo" --read, men, women, human, immigrants. Distributed by Tubemogul.

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GRITtv: March 4, 2011

"Now we have the opportunity to open our books and write our history. Now we're baking the bread and we're going to make them eat it," says Maria Isa, hip-hop artist and activist. Maria and fellow Puerto Rican artist Lah Tere were in Puerto Rico when protests began last year--protests that have seen students and workers in the streets over budget cuts and tuition hikes, seen peaceful demonstrators teargassed by police. Protests as dramatic as anything in the UK, Egypt, Tunisia, or Wisconsin--yet almost never seen on US news despite taking place in the US. Maria and Lah Tere join Laura in studio for a conversation about Puerto Rico's uprising, the role of artists and musicians in keeping action alive, and ways to get involved right here in New York. Have you seen much news from Greece lately? As Brandon Jourdan reports, 300 migrants there, mostly from North Africa, are on hunger strike for their right to remain in the country. As of press time they were on their 37th day and at least 59 of them have been hospitalized --they have pledged to die for their cause if that's what it takes. Is water a human right? That's the question at the center of the new documentary Water On The Table, featuring former GRITtv guest Maude Barlow. Maude has devoted her life to fighting corporate interests to keep our water clean and available for everyone--future generations as well as the present one. Filmmaker Liz Marshall set out to bring an epic vision of Canada's water and the battle over it to the screen, and you can find out more about Maude (and watch her interview with Laura) and the movie through the links here. Seth Freed Wessler of the Applied Research Center and ColorLines has been in Arizona recently, investigating the spread of that state's anti-immigrant law, SB 1070, around the country. He shares some of his findings. Distributed by Tubemogul.

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GRITtv: Seth Freed Wessler: Anti-Immigrant Laws Spread

Last week, an Arizona State Senate committee approved a set of bills that would bar undocumented immigrants from public schools and hospitals and revoke birthright citizenship for children of undocumented immigrants. I spent most of February in Arizona, where I talked with communities about the daily struggle against a growing climate of fear as families are separated by deportation, undocumented immigrants are trapped with abusive partners because abusers threaten to call ICE and children are left alone when their parents disappear after traffic stops. Distributed by Tubemogul.

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GRITtv: Jan. 14, 2011

"Phil was always a little ahead of the curve," says Ken Bowser, the director of a new documentary on 1960s protest singer Phil Ochs. Ochs wrote and performed folk music in its heyday, weighing in on major political issues of his time and connecting with other singer-activists around the world, from Bob Dylan to Chilean singer Victor Jara. Phil Ochs: There But For Fortune talks to people, from Sean Penn to Christopher Hitchens, who were touched by Ochs's music and who knew the singer, who took his own life in 1976 at age 35. Bowser joins Laura in studio for a conversation about Ochs and the film, the place of art and music in protest and activism, and why Ochs has faded from the public's consciousness. Half a century after Dr. King, the civil rights struggle continues and one group still pushing even to be understood, let alone included in what President Obama would call the circle of our concern are transgender people, people who feel their gender and their physical bodies don't match. The group for Parents Familes and Friends of Lesbians and Gays has produced a film, "Faces and Facets of TransGender Experience," a story less of tragedy than triumph. You can get copies to play in your community or school through PFLAG and they benefit from every sale. And finally, GRITtv contributor John Fugelsang has a few Bible lessons for Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church. Distributed by Tubemogul. Distributed by Tubemogul.

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GRITtv: Jan. 24, 2011

"We have deified businessmen while denigrating government workers," says Erica Payne of the Agenda Project, and there's no better example of that than President Obama appointing GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt to head a commission on jobs and competitiveness. Heading into the State of the Union speech, Heidi Shierholz stresses that businesses aren't hiring and creating jobs because there is not enough demand--because people are not buying goods or services.Erica and Heidi join us to discuss the state of the economy, Obama's choice for a leader on jobs, and where the US jobs have really gone.The Raging Grannies also have some thoughts on the economy, and Citizens United's role in it.Budget cuts in care for those with mental illness often go unnoticed, notes mental health nurse Rexanne Darnell, because there is no one to speak for the mentally ill who are affected. It is too often left to legislators and governors, like Jan Brewer in Arizona, are making cuts to programs that keep patients safe and protected--as well as protecting the medical professionals who care for them.Rexanne joins us from Tucson, Arizona, where Jared Loughner shot Gabrielle Giffords and 18 others at a Congress On Your Corner event, and discusses the ongoing assault on mental health care funding.Finally, the revelation of thousands of pages of confidential Palestinian diplomatic records has shocked the world -- all of it except the US, that is. Laura takes a look at the different responses to the Palestine Papers.

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