bill quigley

"We in the U.S. have more people in jail than anywhere else in the world, we spend more on our military than the whole world combined, we have more guns, yet people somehow feel insecure," notes Bill Quigley of the culture in the U.S. Questions about guns aren't the only questi0n to be asked in the wake of the shooting of Gabrielle Giffords, Judge John Roll, and several others in Arizona this weekend. There are many questions to be asked, about priorities, motives, and more. Bill joins us in studio to discuss the latest from Arizona, and also to look at the ongoing devastation in Haiti one year after the earthquake. "You would think the earthquake happened last week," he says of his most recent visit. "People are talking about the resilience of the Haitian people, but 1.3 million are still in tents," says Marie St. Cyr of Haiti, one year after the earthquake that devastated the nation. She points out that less than 4000 new housing units have been built, and communication is a mess. "I go to a meeting and the meeting is being held in English, who is it being held for?" she asks. Marie is chair of the Lambi Fund of Haiti, and joins us in studio to look at what still needs to be done to rebuild Haiti and how the U.S. can help. Finally, a story in the New York Times this week reminds Laura of what we have left to fight for.

"We can't spray dispersant on poor people and expect they go away," Tracie Washington says, calling attention at once to the plight of the people of New Orleans, still struggling to rebuild, and the ongoing issues with the oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico. ; Like the oil that BP claims to have cleaned up, the problems left behind by Hurricane Katrina are still there, just a little bit harder to see.It's been five years now since the levees broke, and the changes to New Orleans are many: around 150,000 people haven't been able to return, the city has more charter schools than anywhere in the country, and it's not hard to guess who's been left behind by the policies. Bill Quigley of the Center for Constitutional Rights and Tracie Washington join us to discuss the challenges New Orleans faces, half a decade after the storm. Actress Melissa Leo didn't know much about New Orleans before moving there to shoot a season of HBO's Tremé, but she quickly fell in love with the city, its music, and its resilient people. The show's focus on the music and culture of the city has brought national attention once again to the unique jazz scene, and filming in New Orleans has brought money and jobs to a city badly in need of both. Melissa joins us via Skype to talk about her experience in New Orleans as an outsider, and why it's important for pop culture to remind us of people's struggles. Finally, Laura has some thoughts about what we can do to make sure that the next time disaster strikes, there's help for all affected.

The death toll rises as Haiti is crushed by a massive 7.0-magnitude earthquake. Much of the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince has been leveled by Tuesday’s earthquake, leaving as many as 100,000 people dead and tens of thousands of people homeless. As of Thursday morning, little aid has arrived in Haiti. We go to Port-au-Prince to speak with independent journalist Ansel Herz. Bill Quigley, the legal director at the Center for Constitutional Rights, and Brian Concannon, director of the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti, offer updates. Naomi Klein speaks about the situation, and Congressmember Maxine Waters talks about the U.S. and international aid response to Tuesday’s earthquake in Haiti. "Democracy Now!" is a daily independent newshour.

It's not only wars that produce blowback for the US; training and funding for right-leaning groups in Latin America has been a long-standing source of resentment and anger around the world. We look back at the effects of US intervention in Latin America and connect the patterns to the current situations in Afghanistan and Iraq with Christian Parenti, Nation contributor and author of "The Soft Cage: Surveillance in America From Slavery to the War on Terror," Rev. Luis Barrios, chair of the Department of Latin American & Latina/o Studies at John Jay College in New York.