donna edwards

"Average people must look at the screens and see the disconnect—it's not left vs. right, it's top-down. It's establishment vs. people." So says Katrina vanden Heuvel of the average TV news show. She joins us, of course, here on GRITtv for our weekly partnership with The Nation magazine to bring you a different kind of political TV show.Katrina and Laura discuss the impending end of unemployment benefits for millions of Americans out of work, the members of Congress who will continue the fight for the people, real progressive taxation, and what Obama can do with his executive power to get around a gridlocked Congress.It's not a year since the earthquake rocked Haiti and destroyed homes and cities, leaving people in desperate situations. And now as elections are approaching, Haitians face a cholera outbreak on top of everything. Nicolas Rossier, an award winning independent filmmaker and reporter whose latest films include American Radical and Aristide and the Endless Revolution, spoke to exiled former Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide about the situation in his country and brought us an exclusive first look at his two-hour conversation.Rossier joins Laura in studio to discuss the situation in Haiti, Aristide's enforced exile in South Africa, and why his party, still popular in Haiti, isn't allowed to participate in the upcoming election.Finally, this weekend saw the loss of two men who were important parts of the Nation family: anti-imperialist author and thinker Chalmers Johnson, and codebreaker and crossword puzzler supreme Frank W. Lewis. Laura has some words in remembrance.

"Ann Coulter hasn't beheaded anybody, I'm glad that's the new marker for extremism," says Markos Moulitsas of criticism of his new book, American Taliban. To the argument that comparing the American Right to the Taliban is unfair and hyperbolic, Markos notes that you don't have to go too far back in U.S. history to find lynchings and other forms of violence used in service of repressive ideas. Markos joins Laura in studio to talk about the book, the Democrats' disdain for their progressive base, the problems with the filibuster, and much more. What's all this talk about being in a "race" when it comes to education? Does the "Race to the Top" framing change anything? And what's all of this racing really doing for our kids? This week's featured documentary, Race to Nowhere, takes a look at just what's going on with our schools, and whether putting a lot of pressure on kids to ace constant tests and load themselves with work is actually producing happy, well-educated people. "If Democrats are in trouble, we don't have to presume they are in trouble because they did too much." So says John Nichols, who sat down with Laura in Wisconsin, at Fighting Bob Fest, and discussed progressive congresspeople who have been stalwarts in Washington since their election on a wave of anti-Bush feeling--and who face tough races.

We've heard plenty about the recession in the U.S., but what about the rest of the world? ; Countries across Europe have faced budget crunches and conservative governments are using the crisis as an excuse to roll back the social safety net that most have enjoyed for decades.Many of the problems--and the solutions--sound sadly familiar. Lowered taxes on the rich and corporations, falling wages, and deregulation led to the crisis, which is being shifted onto the backs of the working class--as Michael Hudson notes, putting the class war back in business. Hudson joins us in studio, along with Richard Wolff, to discuss the economic crisis in Europe, what we can learn about the response to it and apply back at home. Here's a hint: it involves organized labor.Last weekend, while at Netroots Nation, Laura had the opportunity to chat with Representative Donna Edwards.

The Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission will allow unprecedented corporate money to influence United States elections -- essentially giving corporations free speech rights. Free Speech for People is calling for a movement to amend the constitution to keep corporate money out of our election process, and in this video they ask people whether corporations should be given the same rights as they have.