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GRITtv: Dorian Warren: The 'Walmart Way' and Koch's FOIA request in Wisconsin

"It's a targeting of workers' abilities to come together against big companies," says Columbia University professor Dorian Warren of the Walmart v. Duke case. The Supreme Court heard oral arguments from both sides on whether a class-action lawsuit that pits female employees since 1998 against the corporate giant Wal-Mart will be permitted. Plaintiffs say that the level of gender discrimination is so entrenched that is has become part of the corporate culture. A class-action lawsuit would ensure that workers have the resources and voice to take on an opponent as formidable as the world's largest retail chain. If the decision to block a class-action suit is made, workers will be left with individual lawsuits and few other options. And, more GOP maneuvering in Wisconsin: the state GOP, with Koch backing, have issued a FOIA request for the email address of several UW Madison professors. They would like to prove that state email addresses were used for illegal lobbying after professor William Cronon published a blog outlining the role of the conservative think-tank American Legislative Exchange Council in drafting legislation around the country.

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GRITtv: March 30, 2011

"It's a targeting of workers' abilities to come together against big companies," says Columbia University professor Dorian Warren of the Walmart v. Duke case. The Supreme Court heard oral arguments from both sides on whether a class-action lawsuit that pits female employees since 1998 against the corporate giant Wal-Mart will be permitted. Plaintiffs say that the level of gender discrimination is so entrenched that is has become part of the corporate culture. A class-action lawsuit would ensure that workers have the resources and voice to take on an opponent as formidable as the world's largest retail chain. If the decision to block a class-action suit is made, workers will be left with individual lawsuits and few other options. And, more GOP maneuvering in Wisconsin: the state GOP, with Koch backing, have issued a FOIA request for the email address of several UW Madison professors. They would like to prove that state email addresses were used for illegal lobbying after professor William Cronon published a blog outlining the role of the conservative think-tank American Legislative Exchange Council in drafting legislation around the country. "We know that two-thirds of corporations in the U.S. pay no taxes at all. General Electric was not only paying no taxes but taking a three billion dollar tax benefit," notes Josh Holland, editor & senior writer at AlterNet and author of The Fifteen Biggest Lies about the Economy. And while corporations are finagling their way out of paying taxes, working people still have no money to spend to keep the economy moving--and thus the recession goes on. Josh joins Laura in studio to talk about taxes and other lies politicians tell about the economy. Sleeping in the statehouse, takin' it to the streets--this generation of students is getting a great education, at least outside of the classroom. Last week a group of San Francisco students and educators turned out to protest Governor Jerry Brown's cuts. These may be some of the youngest movement leaders we've seen to date. This video courtesy of Openline Media and voiced by our friend, Davey D. Finally, Sheriff Joe Arpaio's latest anti-immigrant plan? Arming his volunteer posse and sending them up in planes to hunt for immigrants and drug smugglers. Laura asks if it's time for a no-fly zone over Arizona. Distributed by Tubemogul.

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GRITtv: F Word: Remembering Geraldine Ferraro

Geraldine Ferraro, the first woman to receive her party’s nomination to run for Vice President is dead at 75. Her battle with blood cancer lasted a long nasty 12 years. Our battle with character assassination, a fight she also took on, is still with us. Distributed by Tubemogul.

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The Global Report Dec. 8-14, 2010

The European Union is losing faith in the war in Afghanistan. The Obama Administration worked with Republicans to block a criminal probe in Bush Administration officials' roles in setting torture policy. Latin American leaders decry what they see as unwanted American intervention into their region. His own panel says that President Obama didn't do enought for Gulf Coast states after the BP oil explosion. The Global Report is a non-profit news organization dedicated to providing under reported news to the citizens of the world.

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GRITtv: Dec. 2, 2010

Members of Congress talking about shutting the government down until they can extend tax cuts for the wealthy are "in denial, blinded by their greed," says Constance Kaplan, "They're not concerned with us." Connie is a law librarian who's worked for JP Morgan Chase, among other companies, and is a '99er' -- she's been unemployed for over 99 weeks and has thus lost all government unemployment benefits.Connie joins us in studio to discuss the government's inattention to job creation, and Edrie Irvine joins us via Skype--a legal secretary, she is also unemployed and is nearing the expiration on her own benefits. They fill us in on what it's like on the job hunt after over a year, and what unemployed workers are doing to get organized."I guess I missed the part of the book of Genesis where Moses says 'Let my people make $250,000 a year or more,'" jokes Chris Lehmann, author of the new book Rich People Things (from OR Books, also publisher of At The Tea Party). And Harper's columnist Thomas Frank notes, "It's expensive to be a populist these days!"Thomas and Chris join us in studio for a chat about Rich People Things--why it is that the same political rhetoric that used to be used in service of the people, the poor and working classes, is now being used to defend the rights of millionaires not to pay taxes. When the social contract's been shredded, right-wingers talk of "forces of darkness" with straight faces, and Republicans are vowing not to vote on anything until they get to cut taxes for the rich, what can we do?And just in case that wasn't enough to convince you that our government has the wrong interests at heart, just-released Fed documents show money floated not just to too-big-to-fail banks, but too-big-to-fail--phone companies? Foreign banks? Motorcycle companies? Laura has some thoughts on the big float.

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GRITtv: The F Word: The Big Float's a Big Scam

WikiLeaks may be the biggest information explosion this week, but Wednesday's mammoth release of documents pertaining to the Fed's bank bail out program could well spark the most outrage -- at least among those not fortunate enough to head a firm on Wall Street. The Federal Reserve, we know, floating cash all over the place in the cold months of '08 and '09. But not just to Wall Street. Apparently Harley-Davidson and Verizon were also “too big to fail." Distributed by Tubemogul.

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GRITtv: Oct. 29, 2010

In the first two parts of our investigative series, The Loaded Chamber, we met the faces behind the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, its shadowy fundraising for the election cycle, and the government entities that are supposed to be keeping an eye on it. In part three, we look at the foreign money flowing into the chamber--and the connections between that cash and the Chamber's support for outsourcing jobs. And is that foreign money going to pay for elections?Want to see more investigations ; like this from us?

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GRITtv: The Big Business Wall Street Won't Discuss

"Do you mind being a vulture?" That's the question Emory law professor Frank Alexander asks in this segment from the Huffington Post Investigative Fund. He's asking it of huge Wall Street banks like JP Morgan Chase and Bank of America, which buy up tax liens from local governments when homeowners fall behind on their property taxes, and then foreclose on the homes.

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GRITtv: At the Tea Party

This week's special feature delves into the who, the what and the why of the Tea Party. As the left grapples with the reality that tea partiers may be more than a passing trend, what should we know about who these people are who funds them? Is the left fighting against them or enabling them?

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GRITtv: Oct. 15 2010

This week's special feature delves into the who, the what, and the why of the Tea Party. As the left grapples with the reality that tea partiers may be more than a passing trend, what should we know about who these people are who funds them? Is the left fighting against them or enabling them? And most importantly, what can be done to turn things around? Laura's new book is out on October 20 and tackles precisely the above: At the Tea Party: The Wing Nuts, Whack Jobs, and Whitey-Whiteness of the New Republican Right and Why We Should Take It Seriously features contributions from Max Blumenthal, Alexander Cockburn, Lisa Duggan, Glenn Greenwald, Melissa Harris-Perry, Chris Hedges, and Jim Hightower amongst many others. Three of the book's contributors, and GRITtv favorites, join us today: Richard Kim is the senior editor of The Nation and co-editor of Going Rouge: Sarah Palin, an American Nightmare, Rebecca Traister, senior staff writer for Salon.com and the author of Big Girls Don't Cry, and historian Rick Perlstein, author of Nixonland. Ella Es El Matador, or "She Is The Matador", is a documentary film directed by Gemma Cubero and Celeste Carrasco. Using as a launching pad a 1908 Spanish law barring women from bullfighting, Ella Es El Matador tackles the history of women in the ring, as well as the dangerous dance with Spanish ideas of masculinity that woman bullfighters engage with everytime they spin their cape. Special thanks to Women Make Movies, the film's distributor.

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