eesha pandit
GRITtv: Feb. 3, 2011
"I want my kids to be proud of their country," says Raina Fahmy, of Egypt. "I don't want them feeling that living here is at best a compromise and at worst a sacrifice." Images of violence from today's protests were all over the news, but Raina, on the phone from Cairo, tells us that she felt very safe at the protests, and explains to us why it matters for her to go out and join them, and to bring her family along. "We've been playing defense too long," says Sady Doyle, founder of Tigerbeatdown.com and one of the architects of a new Twitter campaign to pressure Congress to shut down a new bill in the House that would further limit women's access to abortion. The #dearjohn campaign, along with other actions, helped convince Republican Chris Smith that he should take controversial language around "forcible" rape out of the bill, but the activists aren't backing down. Sady and health care advocate Eesha Pandit join Laura in studio to discuss H.R. 3, the Republicans' skewed sense of priorities, the Democrats who are complicit, and why it's time to go on the offensive over abortion. This week would have marked Ronald Reagan's 100th birthday, and the obsessive coverage is only just beginning. Some conservatives have even claimed that Reagan would've handled the situation in Egypt better than Obama has. While we have no idea what Reagan would do now, we know what he did do--in Iran-Contra, on women's right to choose, and most importantly, on planting the seeds of the hatred of government that we've now seen in full flower in the Tea Party movement. Thomas Frank joined Laura via Skype to talk revolution, recession, and Reagan, and also to tell us a little about an experiment he and Harper's conducted, asking real-life Mad Men in advertising to come up with an ad to sell government to Americans--during that most American of events, the Super Bowl. Distributed by Tubemogul.
Email this pageGRITtv: Sady Doyle & Eesha Pandit: On the Offensive over Abortion
"We've been playing defense too long," says Sady Doyle, founder of Tigerbeatdown.com and one of the architects of a new Twitter campaign to pressure Congress to shut down a new bill in the House that would further limit women's access to abortion. The #dearjohn campaign, along with other actions, helped convince Republican Chris Smith that he should take controversial language around "forcible" rape out of the bill, but the activists aren't backing down. Sady and health care advocate Eesha Pandit join Laura in studio to discuss H.R. 3, the Republicans' skewed sense of priorities, the Democrats who are complicit, and why it's time to go on the offensive over abortion.
GRITtv: Ayn Rand: The Right's Gateway Drug
Even before the ascension to public consciousness of a right-wing libertarian named Rand, Ayn Rand has been a hot topic of conversation. From threats from the right to "Go Galt" after Rand's "Atlas Shrugged" hero to the downfall of Alan Greenspan, the fingerprints of the novelist/philosopher/heroine of freemarketeers everywhere have been all over the last couple of years in U.S. politics. Just what was it about Ayn Rand that attracted so many followers, and what is it about her books that keeps them flying off the shelves? We ask Corey Robin, Brooklyn College professor and author of a new piece on Rand at The Nation, and Eesha Pandit, feminist philosopher and Director of Advocacy at MergerWatch, to tell us what everyone sees in Ayn Rand, and explain why we should be concerned about her influence.
GRITtv: May 28, 2010
Just what was it about Ayn Rand that attracted so many followers, and what is it about her books that keeps them flying off the shelves? We ask Corey Robin, Brooklyn College professor and author of a new piece on Rand at The Nation, and Eesha Pandit, feminist philosopher and Director of Advocacy at MergerWatch, to tell us what everyone sees in Ayn Rand. McKinley Nolan was a black GI who went missing in Vietnam forty years ago. The circumstances of his disappearance were never really figured out, but in 2006 someone thought they saw him on a busy street, still alive in Vietnam. The sighting touches off a search that leads Nolan's family from Texas to Vietnam and Cambodia, and this documentary follows their search for answers along with their lost family member, and while they're at it trying to understand deeper questions about life, loss, and war. Not long ago on GRITtv, Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor of The Nation, recalled an example of Republican leadership very different from what we mostly see today. In the era of Glenn Beck and Karl Rove, would we ever see someone like Senator Margaret Chase Smith from Maine, who spoke out against Joseph McCarthy's Communist-hunts? ; We bring you part of that conversation with Katrina, and actress Lola Pasholinsky reads a portion of Smith's Call to Conscience, from June 1, 1950 on the Senate floor.
GRITtv: Eesha Pandit: New Restrictions on Women
In the wake of health care reform, new attempts to restrict women's access to abortion services have surged. Nebraska has passed a new law that criminalizes abortions after 20 weeks of gestation on the basis of "fetal pain," and another that forces women to undergo mental health examination before obtaining an abortion at all. Eesha Pandit of MergerWatch and Raising Women's Voices For the Healthcare We Need returns to GRITtv to discuss the new attacks on women's right to choose and the chilling effect they're intended to have. Distributed by Tubemogul.
GRITtv: Apr. 15 2010
In the wake of health care reform, new attempts to restrict women's access to abortion services have surged. Nebraska has passed a new law that criminalizes abortions after 20 weeks of gestation on the basis of "fetal pain," and another that forces women to undergo mental health examination before obtaining an abortion at all. Eesha Pandit of MergerWatch and Raising Women's Voices For the Healthcare We Need returns to GRITtv to discuss the new attacks on women's right to choose and the chilling effect they're intended to have. Is the economy coming back--or is our debt going to sink us? Are people who don't pay taxes this year just freeloading? Did Virginia's governor really forget that slavery was a big part of the Civil War? Who's fact-checking the news, and what about that WikiLeaks tape, anyway? Danny Schechter, News Dissector, and Lizz Winstead, cofounder of the Daily Show, join us in studio to answer these and other pressing questions about the week in news. Finally, the Tea Party supposedly originated from opposition to taxes and government spending. Yet a New York Times poll finds something a little different behind the anger. Laura discusses.
GRITtv: Compromise On Women's Backs Again
Jill Filipovic, Frances Kissling, Diane Archer and Eesha Pandit talk about strategies for responding to the Stupak-Pitts amendment, and what activists, feminists, and allies can do to make Democrats understand that women are not bargaining chips.
GRITtv: Nov. 10, 2009
Jill Filipovic, Frances Kissling, Diane Archer and Eesha Pandit talk about strategies for responding to Stupak, and what activists, feminists, and allies can do to make Democrats understand that women are not bargaining chips. Emily and Sarah grew up in the shadow attorney William Kunstler, and join us to talk about the documentary they have made about their father. We check in with the situation in Honduras, with video from The Real News. We learn that the agreement seems to be doing more to legitimize the coup government than to get rid of it. And we have video from an Iraq veteran who put together a clip contrasting statements made before the war with the grim realities of combat. And 20 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Palestinian activists tore down a segment of the wall across the West Bank in protest of increasing Israeli settlements.
