huffington post

"We don't write about class struggle in the US so it's hard for us to see it elsewhere," says the Huffington Post's Ryan Grim on the failings of the US media around issues in Egypt. And Katrina vanden Heuvel notes that Islamophobia in the US leads many to focus on fear of the Muslim Brotherhood rather than understanding the ways that Islam and democracy coexist and complement one another.Here in the US, too, there were big media stories, as the Huffington Post merged with AOL, and Keith Olbermann signed up with Al Gore's Current TV. What's in those stories for independent media? Ryan, Katrina and Laura discuss.Karwan Abdul Kader left Iraq when he was 7, seeking refuge from Saddam's attacks on the Kurds. But he faces a different kind of attack in the U.S., as this next clip from our friends at Breakthrough shows. He shares his story of dealing with racial profiling after escaping a dictatorship.As the news comes that Mubarak may be gone from Egypt, attention has turned to his newly appointed Vice President (and possibly soon President) Omar Suleiman. Suleiman came up through the ranks of Egypt's intelligence service, and Jane Mayer and others have pointed out his role in American rendition programs. Meanwhile at home, several former CIA officers involved in some of the most egregious human rights offenses of the "war on terror" have not only not faced charges--they've been promoted.To discuss this and more, we have former US Air Force interrogator and author of the new book Kill or Capture , Matthew Alexander.Finally, speaking of the "war on terror," parts of the PATRIOT Act came up for renewal this week--and were shut down in the House by an oddly bipartisan coalition. A Tea Party revolt? Laura has some thoughts.

"Tremé is the musical heart of New Orleans just like New Orleans is the musical heart of America, and I don't just mean the United States," says Steve Earle, who knows a little something about music. The longtime singer/songwriter and activist has played a role as a street musician in the new HBO series Tremé, and has a long history both with the show's creator, David Simon, and with the city and the neighborhood in which the show is set.Earle joined us in studio to continue our coverage of the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, to discuss the city and the storm, the aftermath of the BP oil disaster, our ongoing responsibilty to change our oil consumption habits, and why the death penalty and the Iraq war are related.GRITtv viewers are surely familiar with the story of the Israeli assault on Gaza in December of 2008. But this week's featured documentary tells a more personal story from a personal friend of ours, occasional camera operator Fida Qishta. Fida is a Palestinian filmmaker, and her film tells the story of her interaction with Mona, an 11-year-old who lost her family in the invasion.You can donate to support the completion of the film here.Finally, Daryn Strauss, creator of the critically acclaimed web series, Downsized and the website, Digital Chick TV, shares her thoughts on supporting women in digital media. We know you'll agree...

"I have no regret to anybody in the military. This is clearly a failure of our government," says Iraq war veteran Dan Choi, who was discharged under "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell"; environmental activist Jerry Cope talks about his Huffington Post article, "The Crime of the Century: What BP and US Government Don’t Want You to Know"; Antonia Juhasz talks about BP’s "missing oil" that is washing up in St. Mary’s Parish, LA. "Democracy Now!" is a daily independent newshour.

Last week, the war in Afghanistan hit a sad milestone: the 1000th American casualty. This Monday will be Memorial Day, when we stop to remember the soldiers who have given their lives in battle in the U.S.'s many wars. But there are many veterans from the wars still alive and struggling with the consequences of active duty every day, both physically and mentally. Jose Vasquez, executive director of Iraq Veterans Against the War, joins us in studio to talk about the ongoing struggles on behalf of veterans, whether they be discharged and fighting for benefits or still on active duty and fighting repeated deployments. Debt has a tendency to snowball, getting bigger and bigger and leaving people less and less likely to be able to pay it off. While big banks and corporations get bailed out by the government as "too big to fail," small debtors like Vicki Valentine, who missed one deadline to pay off sewer and water charges and suddenly found herself in a mass of debt that led to a tax lien and foreclosure. This video from the Huffington Post Investigative Fund tells her story. Broken glass is a hazard of city living. It's everywhere. So when a meeting of architects and urban planners were trying to come up with uses for vacant lots around New York, one of their chief challenges was figuring out what to do with the glass. David Belt and his company Macro-Sea took a comment from an attendee at the meeting, Bethany Edwards, who suggested creating a place where people could go to break glass. Ready-Made magazine, which cosponsored a contest to find uses for the broken glass, describes the location as "Part game, part art installation, part mobile recycling center, Glassphemy! is a 20-by-30-foot steel structure lined with bulletproof glass." We at GRITtv don't care what they call it, we thought it sounded fun and our own Sam Alcoff and Isabel Braverman took a trip to check it out. As states scramble to stay afloat -- how are they balancing their budgets? On the backs of working women of course. The new big trend is to cut subsidies for child care. And with child care -- poof -- a critical lifeline to working moms is disappearing. The same states that cut welfare entitlements in the 90s, forcing moms out to work, are now cutting the subsdized child care that was promised in return for workfare.