jane hamsher

It's nearly the homestretch for the 2010 midterm elections, and unsurprisingly, race remains a hot topic. From a new ad in Nevada urging Latinos not to vote to Sharron Angle's latest comments about Latino youth looking Asian, and ongoing concern that black voters will not turn out in numbers like they did in 2008, it's clear that no matter how much candidates deny it, race is this season's hot button. Farai Chideya, of the public radio and multimedia news program Pop and Politics, has been traveling the country putting together a three-part public radio/multimedia series on "Race, Rage and Reconciliation in the 2010 Midterm Elections," and she joins Laura in studio to discuss what she's seen and learned.Dr. Joycelyn Elders is no stranger to making controversial statements in public, so her support of California's Proposition 19, the marijuana legalization ballot initiative, shouldn't be surprising. After all, years ago she was ousted as Bill Clinton's Surgeon General after noting that a discussion of masturbation should be part of educating young people on avoiding HIV infection.Elders joins us via Skype from Arkansas, where she is professor emeritus at the University of Arkansas School of Medicine and an associate at Arkansas Children's Hospital, to discuss marijuana legalization, the return of masturbation as a campaign issue, and the ongoing struggle for universal health care in the U.S."People are looking to state ballot initiatives to have some form of control over governance when elected officials are abdicating," says Jane Hamsher of this year's crop of ballot initiatives around the country. Perhaps best known is California's Proposition 19, which would legalize, regulate, and tax marijuana, but there are also important tax initiatives on ballots around the country, as well as state environmental regulations.Hamsher joins us via Skype and Nathan Newman of the Progressive States Network is in studio to discuss the various ballot initiatives and their effect both on voter turnout and on actual governance.

The winners were challengers -- right and left - and those who organized on the ground. As our friend Jane Hamsher put it primary night, "Between Obama, netroots & tea parties clearing out Senate dead wood, average age has dropped about 2 decades in the last five hours." There are lessons here, but are they party lessons? This being primary season, the only real party news came from Pennsylvania’s 12th congressional district, where a candidates competed for the seat of the late John Murtha. The district voted for John McCain in 2008 even as the state voted for Obama. Both party's House leaders showed up: Boehner and Pelosi and both poured in cash--the GOP around $1m bucks. Democratic candidate Mark Critz made jobs and veterans his top two priorities and for pictures he stood with miners in coal fields. He won -- and that's got Democrats excited. Pelosi doesn't have voters as scared as Fox News would have you imagine. And frustrated working Pennyslvanians didn't embrace tea party rage. Instead, in a tough-hit working district, organized labor turned out with a strong message on fair trade and busting the banksters. And CRITZ won. Is the lesson that Dems can relax for the fall? Hardly. It may well be a lesson that 33,000 phone calls, 16,000 door-knocks and 75,000 worksite flyers at 63 work district work sites did. That's what the AFL-CIO say they did for CRITZ this season. GRITtv with Laura Flanders brings participatory democracy onto your computer screen and into your living room, bridging the gap between audience and advocates. Watch any show, at any time: http://grittv.org Distributed by Tubemogul.

Tuesday is the biggest primary day of the year! Activists from Arkansas, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, and Oregon’s right and the left are fighting fierce and close battles that will be decided tomorrow. These campaigns include, but are not limited to the rivalry between corporate interest pandering Blanche Lincoln and the more progressive Bill Halter in Arkansas, Joe Sestak’s sudden, and competitive surge for the democratic senate seat in Pennsylvania. Political blogger and founder and editor of FireDogLake, Jane Hamsher joins us via Skype to sort out the details in each state, and the campaigns’ significance for the general elections. GRITtv with Laura Flanders brings participatory democracy onto your computer screen and into your living room, bridging the gap between audience and advocates. Watch any show, at any time: http://grittv.org Distributed by Tubemogul.

Without a public option, Medicare buy-in, or other cost-controlling measures, and with Stupak and Nelson holding women's rights for ransom, is there anything good left in te healthcare bill? We ask Chris Hayes, Lizz Winstead and Miriam Yeung what's in, what's out, and what the best course of action is now for progressives who want to see real reform. Sarah Schulman joins Laura in the studio to talk about homophobia in the family and more. Street Films made a humorous list of ten things to be thankful for when Gridlock Alert hits. New America Media looks at an alternative program in San Francisco that offers low-cost short-term loans to keep people out of the clutches of the payday lenders. Circus Amok takes its brand of avant-garde political theater to Washington Square Park. William K. Black, a former senior deputy chief counsel at the federal Office of Thrift Supervision is an expert on the shady dealings of banks and corporations. David Heath of the Huffington Post interviewed him for this report.