first amendment
Occupy: Rev. Billy's Freak Storm
The change that is in the air, that we all feel. No-one really knows why we are blessed with the common feeling. This same slaughter of the innocents has gone on for so long. This same mystical financing of poisoned farms, of dead oceans, of cancerous children and national false emotions - all this comes at us now as a bad surprise. We have a fresh rage. We have a shout that is honest, thousand of us. We are occupying our civic institutions stolen so long ago by men in suits, and surrounded by confused police. All at once, we want a better life and don't want to wait. Then this discovery: It is a better life to demand a better life! Revolujah!
Email this pageGRITtv: John Nichols: The Right to Peaceably Assemble
When Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' Congress on Your Corner event was attacked on January 8th, gunman Jared Loughner did more than just go on a shooting spree. John Nichols notes that he attacked the very right of U.S. citizens to peaceably assemble and communicate with their representative in the government. When the 112th Congress first met this year, their first order of business was to read the Constitution out loud, and Rep. Giffords was the one who read the portion of the First Amendment that deals with the right to peaceably assemble, and Nichols argues that we need to honor Giffords and those killed that day by standing up for that right. Distributed by Tubemogul.
Midweek Politics with David Pakman: Aug. 25 2010
–Walid Shoebat, the former Palestinian terrorist who is against the building of the Ground Zero Mosque/Lower Manhattan Community Center, joins us live to discuss how close is too close for him, the background of Feisal Abdul Rauf, Arabic recordings, and more.
–Midweek Politics 5 years anniversary and iPad giveaway
–Concerns from the audience about Louis as sidekick and producer.
–Primary election results, including Kendrick Meek’s win in Florida, John McCain holding off JD Hayworth in Arizona, Ben Quayle winning, the Florida situation involving Mark Rubio and Charlie Crist, and the Alaska contest between Lisa Murkowski and Joe Miller.
–Now that President Obama has pulled enough troops out to get below the 50,000 mark, is this really the end of the Iraq war? What would it take for the US to go back in? Plus, John McCain says Bush deserves credit for the end of the war, and media coverage of the drawdown varied greatly depending on who was reporting.
–Fox News continues to dominate the cable news ratings, and we discuss why this might be, as well as go over the million dollar donation controversy from Fox News to the Republican Governors Association, including the ad that Media Matters wants to run on Fox News during The O’Reilly Factor.
–Exploring the connection between Fox News, News Corporation’s major shareholder Saudi Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, whose money was refused by Rudy Giuliani after 9/11, and the so-called Ground Zero Mosque.
–Doctor Laura and Al Sharpton followup, including why some listeners are calling David Pakman the racist.
–Sarah Palin “supports” Doctor Laura, and we try to figure out what that means, and why both Sarah and Laura seem to be very confused about the First Amendment.
–In a bizarre turn of events, the same Pat Buchanan who previously dabbled in Holocaust denial, complained of too many Jews on the Supreme Court, and claimed whites were losing their country to Hispanics, claims that Newt Gingrich went too far in his comment about Nazis when discussing the Ground Zero Mosque.
–Yet another act of domestic terrorism in the US, and we discuss why domestic right wing terror is presumed to be “lone gunmen” and “isolated incidents,” while individual foreigners committing similar acts are referred to as terrorists in the context of the Global War on Terror.
–Last week’s poll about the Ground Zero Mosque, a new poll about the “end” of the war in Iraq, plus emails about a racist real estate incident in Chicago, scammers on religious cable channel INSP, Alvin Greene, Ben Quayle, and more.
GRITtv: Lisa Graves: Put Corporations in Their Place
In the recent Citizens United case, the Supreme Court struck down critically important laws regulating corporate influence on elections and public policy. We oppose this radical decision by these five unelected men to rewrite the First Amendment and give corporations the inalienable free speech rights of human beings. Huge corporations like Goldman Sachs and AIG will be able to use their enormous wealth to run campaigns against any person who might oppose their agenda. The corruption of lawmaking we've already seen by the big insurance companies, the big banks, and the big oil companies show that this decision will make things worse in our democracy. It's wrong to give corporations the same rights as people. A corporation isn't really a person. We cannot sit on the sidelines and let this decision ruin our democracy. The Constitution is our national charter and belongs to us. Given the gridlock in Washington, I don't think any good legislation fixing this can pass the Senate. The only way to restore the primacy of the people is to amend the Constitution. We should protect the sacred rights of human beings to freedom of speech. We need to make clear that money isn't the same as speech, in order to ensure fair elections. And, we have to put corporations back in their place. It?s hard work but we've got to start somewhere. -- Lisa Graves is the publisher of SourceWatch.org, which writes the history of the people, companies and front groups trying to shape public policy.
GRITtv: Feb. 9, 2010
The blame has been flying -- it's Obama's fault, Rahm Emanuel's, Harry Reid's -- but what if the problem simply is the Senate? We ask the New Yorker's Hendrik Hertzberg, Lawrence Lessig and Nancy Scola of the Personal Democracy Forum. Lisa Graves is the publisher of SourceWatch.org, which writes the history of the people, companies and front groups trying to shape public policy. She weighs in on the recent Citizens United decision. Joe Sacco discusses his work and why he chooses the medium he does to tell these riveting stories. We talk a lot about the future of news and newspapers around here, but what about the paper that the news is printed on? A video from Inform Inc, directed by Virginia Ramsey, Brian Ohl, and Eleanor Saunders, looks at paper, recycling, and its impact on the environment. And another from our friends at Street Films looks at the changes to Times Square. Finally, Laura points out the need for public, non-ad-supported media.
