Harvey Wasserman
GRITtv: Harvey Wasserman, Jim Hightower, and Peg Lautenschlager
"This is beyond serious," Harvery Wassermn of NukeFree.org says of the situation surrounding Japan's damaged nuclear facilities. "If all four of those reactors go, the death toll will be in the millions." Japan has been left reeling by a 9.0 magnitude earthquake and ensuing tsunami that has killed thousands. To make matters worse, numerous nuclear energy facilities in damaged in Japan are in danger of releasing deadly radiation. Experts are already claiming the situation is worse that the nuclear emergency of Three Mile Island and may get worse. "This has been spontaneous combustion, what's happening here in Wisconsin," Jim Hightower says. "Ordinary folks have been knocked down: workers, farmers, consumers, environmentalists." Hightower and former Wisconsin Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager spoke with Laura Flanders this weekend during protests that saw more than 120,000 people descend on Madison to demonstrate against Governor Scott Walker's bill that took collective bargaining rights away from public unions. Lautenschlager says that the process Governor Scott Walker and other Republicans circumvented Wisconsin state law and will face pending legal challenges, both to the process and the bill itself. Finally, President Barack Obama is firing up his behind-the-scenes campaign personnel and looking to draw from his base for support, but what about his support for the base? Laura has a few choice words of warning. Distributed by Tubemogul.
Email this pageDemocracy Now!: Wed. Mar. 2, 2011
Forces aligned with Libyan leader Col. Muammar Gaddafi have launched new assaults to regain control of several towns captured in a popular uprising over the past two weeks. As talk of potential Western military intervention grows, we speak to Horace Campbell, a professor of African American studies and political science at Syracuse University. Reports have emerged of a dire situation on Libya’s borders with Tunisia and Egypt, where tens of thousands have fled to evade the clashes. We speak to Elizabeth Tan of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Labor protests are continuing across the country from Idaho to Indiana as Republican state lawmakers attempt to push through legislation aimed at crushing public employee unions. In Ohio, 20,000 workers and protesters rallied in Columbus on Tuesday to oppose a bill to end collective bargaining rights for state employees. Harvey Wasserman, editor of the Ohio-based The Free Press, spoke to Democracy Now! from the rally. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has unveiled a budget slashing aid to schools and local districts, cutting an estimated 12,000 jobs. Critics say the plan would devastate Wisconsin’s public education system. We speak with Mary Bottari of the Madison-based Center for Media and Democracy’s Real Economy Project. 35 Democratic members of the Indiana Assembly have fled to Illinois to deny Republicans quorum for a vote on a similar anti-union bill. We speak to Indiana State Rep. Matt Pierce from Illinois. Hundreds of high school students in Idaho have walked out of classes to protest a plan to lay off public school teachers and curtail their collective bargaining rights. We speak to student activist Jonny Saunders of Timberline High School in Boise. Democracy Now!, a daily independent newshour.
Democracy Now!: Thur. Feb. 18 2010
Nobel economist Joseph Stiglitz on Obama's stimulus plan, debt, climate change and his book, "Freefall: America, Free Markets and the Sinking of the World Economy." President Obama has pledged $8.3 billion in loan guarantees needed to build the first nuclear reactors in nearly three decades, which represents a new federal commitment to the nuclear power sector. We go to independent journalist and longtime anti-nuclear activist Harvey Wasserman, who helped found the grassroots movement against nuclear power in the United States in the 1970s, for background and comments. "Democracy Now!" is a daily independent newshour.
