chicago

More and more, cases of police brutality throughout the United States are coming to light. Not surprisingly, much of the abuse is happening in low-income neighborhoods and communities of color. Salim Muwakkil, senior editor at In These Times, has written an article about the strained relationship between the Chicago Police Department and the city's African-American community. It's the second installment in a five-part series from In These Times called, "The Other Chicago."

"Governors are leading a fight on the gravy and the meat is off the table," notes Rev. Jesse Jackson, civil rights activist and former presidential candidate. The meat, he notes, is a trillion dollar war, corporate personhood, unregulated banks and more, and yet conservative governors are attacking the rights of working people. "They remove the roof for the wealthy, then attack the floor for the working poor," he notes. Rev. Jackson was with the workers in Madison and Columbus, and joins Laura in our New York studio to discuss the attacks on workers, the revolution in Libya and what the US should do about it, and Rahm Emanuel becoming Mayor of Chicago. Distributed by Tubemogul.

"They've turned the deficit into the new Saddam Hussein," notes David Swanson, but he points out that if the deficit commission results in reduced military spending, it could have some small benefit. His new book, War is a Lie, delves into the myths about war, ultimately coming up with an argument that war is never justifiable. David joins us in studio to discuss the book, the ongoing war in Afghanistan, and to connect the dots between the economic crisis and overblown war spending. He also makes the argument that we need to fight against wars before they happen, because trying to end them once they've started is nearly impossible. "We need to break down the assumption that foreign policy is something that should be left to these elites," says former British diplomat Carne Ross, who resigned over the Iraq war. The WikiLeaks cable releases, as he puts it, "reveal the extraordinary gap between private action and public rhetoric" on the part of governments--and that's what's been the most damaging. Ross is a cautious supporter of WikiLeaks, and he joins us to discuss the contents of the diplomatic cables released by that organization--to break down diplomatic language, point out some surprising revelations, and talk about his reservations about a culture of leaks as the best way to combat government lies. The Clinton years analogies have been coming fast and furious since the midterm elections and Obama's self-described ?shellacking.? But today's administration seems anything but worried about the comparisons?in fact, they seem to be doing their best to roll back the clock. Laura has some thoughts about the rumors that Bill Daley will take a job with the Obama administration--and what that means, especially for trade policy.

We keep hearing about the enthusiasm gap this election cycle--that Republicans, energized by the Tea Party, are ready to sweep into the polls and sweep out the Democratic majorities. Meanwhile the Obama administration seems perfectly willing to blame it all on their progressive critics--as if the economy wasn't actually bad, lefty bloggers are just making people think it's bad. Additionally, notes Baratunde Thurston, "Our politicians are assumed to be corrupt and not doing much to discourage that assumption." So where do we go from here? Baratunde joins guest host John Fugelsang in studio to discuss the enthusiasm gap, the ongoing problems for the administration, and the public attention now going toward the suicide of gay teens. Rebecca Traister didn't start out as a Hillary Clinton supporter, but by the end of the 2008 election cycle she was so frustrated and angered by the relentless sexism aimed at Clinton that she wound up not just supporting her, but continuing to analyze the entire election cycle through the lens of gender. Her new book, Big Girls Don't Cry: The Election that Changed Everything for American Women, is out now from Free Press, and she sat down with Laura in studio recently to discuss it, and how the ramifications from 2008 are still playing out in our politics today. It's no secret to GRITtv viewers that profound inequality is one of the biggest problems our schools face. For over three weeks, a group of mostly single Latina moms have been occupying a building at John Greenleaf Whittier Dual Language Elementary School in the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago, demanding the school system account for misspent funds--and build their kids a library. Anne Elizabeth Moore has been covering the story from the beginning, and she brings us this report.