goldstone report

"We need to shine a light on the big banks and all their different tentacles," says Sarah Ludwig of the Neighborhood Economic Development Advocacy Project, noting that all too many of the programs put in place to encourage banks to help homeowners fight foreclosure are voluntary, rendering them toothless. Instead, she calls for citizens to be aware of the banks' practices and to think about where we put our money. Sarah joins us to bring us up to date on the ongoing crisis in foreclosures in the U.S.--one million in 2010--and to discuss the different solutions, as well as WikiLeaks' promised disclosure of documents from a major bank. In the last weeks of the Bush administration, Israel started bombing Gaza. The attacks and invasion that followed were termed Operation Cast Lead, and they ended on January 18, 2009. The United Nations investigation into the assault culminated in the Goldstone Report, which accused both sides of war crimes. The controversy over the report made more news than its contents, unfortunately, but a new book out from Nation Books republishes the report along with discussions from many different voices. Lizzy Ratner was one of the editors of that book, and Laila El-Haddad a contributor to it, and they join Laura for a discussion of the invasion, the continuing controversy, and what ordinary people can do to help change the situation in Gaza. Finally, with a new Republican Congress falling all over itself to hand corporations whatever they want, it was only a matter of time before some politician turned up in the pages of the Wall Street Journal, breathlessly describing the “dazzling” and “path-breaking” nature of the free market, and vowing to get rid of regulations that have placed “unreasonable” burdens on businesses. We just didn't think it would be Barack Obama. Distributed by Tubemogul.

As we celebrate the life and legacy of U.S. civil rights leader Martin Luther King, we take a look back at another recent discussion of one of the biggest civil rights struggles of our time: the fight to liberate the Palestinian people. Not long ago, the UN Human Rights Council released the Goldstone Report, sharply condemning Israel's actions in the recent fighting between Hamas and Israel in the Gaza strip. Today we rebroadcast our show from the day that report was released, with activists Diana Buttu, a former spokesperson for the PLO, Neve Gordon, senior lecturer at Ben-Gurion Univesity and Phyllis Bennis, director of the New Internationalism Project at the Institute for Policy Studies, to discuss the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement. Then, Hasan Kwame Jeffries talks about the legacy of the African-American struggle for freedom. And author and poet Remi Kanazi performs some of his new work. We also looked at community banking, back in the news as the hearings start up over the financial crisis, and the fight over the health care bill still isn't over either. We can't say for certain what Martin Luther King would do were he still with us. Still, we thought it an appropriate acknowledgement of his legacy of concern and struggle for the rights of all people, while we take the day to honor his memory, to re-air this program.