glenn greenwald

Oakland police repeatedly fired tear gas and flash grenades Tuesday night as protesters attempted to retake the Occupy Oakland encampment outside City Hall-only 12 hours after police tore apart the camp and arrested more than 90 people in a pre-dawn raid. We speak to Rachel Jackson of the Oscar Grant Committee Against Police Brutality and State Repression about how the police are handling Occupy Oakland. We also are joined by John Avalos, San Francisco city supervisor and a candidate for mayor of San Francisco. Glenn Greenwald's new book,"With Liberty and Justice for Some: How the Law is Used to Destroy Equality and Protect the Powerful," offers a scathing critique of what he calls the two-tiered system of justice that ensures the political and financial class is virtually immune from prosecution in the United States. Greenwald also discusses the possible shutdown of the online whistleblower website WikiLeaks due to a "financial blockade" led by MasterCard, Visa and PayPal. Democracy Now!, a daily independent newshour.

Up to two billion people around the world tuned in to watch the British royal wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton, a story which has dominated TV news for weeks. Democracy Now! spoke with Johann Hari, a columnist at The Independent of London, who says the royal wedding frenzy should be an embarrassment to us all. The May Day rallies set to take place this Sunday follow massive pro-labor protests in Wisconsin to protect collective bargaining rights of public workers. We speak with Clarence Thomas of the International Longshoreman and Warehouse Union Local 10, which shut down the ports of Oakland and San Francisco on April 4 in solidarity with workers in Wisconsin. We’re also joined from Milwaukee by Christine Neumann-Ortiz, executive director of Voces de la Frontera, a key organizer behind 2006’s 70,000-strong march in Milwaukee. Military officials have announced alleged whistleblower U.S. Army Private Bradley Manning, who is suspected of leaking classified U.S. documents to WikiLeaks, has been cleared to be held as a medium-security prisoner at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, where he was just transferred. We speak to Salon.com legal blogger and constitutional law attorney Glenn Greenwald, who revealed in December that Manning was being subjected to detention conditions likely to inflict long-term psychological injuries. Democracy Now!, a daily independent newshour.

In the war of information around WikiLeaks, the story just keeps getting messier. The latest chapter involves Anonymous, the group of hackers who targeted banks that denied WikiLeaks funding, a private security firm called HBGary, Bank of America, the CIA, and our good friends at the US Chamber of Commerce. Spying, data mining, and smear campaigns against progressive bloggers and union members and activists are just part of the mess, which is still unfolding. Lee Fang from Think Progress and Michael Whitney at FireDogLake have been following the story closely, and they join Laura to discuss what we know so far about the sleazy tactics being used by the banksters and their US Chamber allies.

"A tiger doesn't change his stripes and the U.S. Chamber is not going to start working with the President," says Christy Setzer of U.S. Chamber Watch. But that didn't keep Obama from trying, as he gave a speech to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which Christy reminds us is a massive lobbying organization, by far the biggest in the country, for right-wing causes. Christy joins us in studio to discuss Obama's speech to the Chamber, why it matters, and why we might be making too big a deal out of it. And don't forget to check out our original investigative series, The Loaded Chamber, at the links here. "Corporate America hasn't been thinking about this country for a number of years," says Richard Trumka, President of the AFL-CIO. And one might argue that politicians have been thinking too much about corporate America and not enough about working America. Unemployment is still too high, and new conservative governors are taking advantage of the recession to bust public unions. But Trumka and the AFL-CIO are fighting back, and that's even led to some strange partnerships--a statement recently, co-authored with U.S. Chamber of Commerce President Tom Donohue. Trumka joins us from D.C. via Skype to tell us what he and Donohue agree on--and what they don't. The U.S. media seems to have found a new language for the economy. There's been talk of “solidarity” and even “class war,” and a focus on corruption and inequality like we haven't seen in who knows how long. The only problem? They're talking about Egypt. Distributed by Tubemogul.