Lawrence Lessig
Occupy the Courts: A Conversation with Lawrence Lessing
On January 20, occupiers across the country rallied together in protest against the insidious influence of corporations over the judiciary. Shortly before the rally in Foley Square, New York CIty, Lawrence Lessig and Chris Hedges met in front of Occupy TVNY's cameras to discuss their vision of change. Lawrence Lessig: "I have enormous respect for what you've done, but don't stop with this symbol of corporations are not a person. Don't stop until you have restored this democracy to a democracy that the classical republicans could respect." Chris Hedges: "In every single avenue we have to fight back, however corrupt the courts are, and certainly on the streets. You're an inspiration to me, you're an inspiration to countless Americans, and I think ultimately because the truth is on our side."
Email this pageGRITtv: National Conference for Media Reform
This weekend, GRITtv headed to Boston with lots of our favorite media makers, activists, and thinkers for the National Conference for Media Reform. Laura was the emcee for the opening plenary, and then stuck around all weekend, talking about money, media and politics with movers and shakers. Check out some of what we saw at the conference! Distributed by Tubemogul.
"Democracy Now!": Wed. May 12 2010
As thousands of gallons of oil continue to spew daily from a damaged well in the Gulf of Mexico, representatives from BP, Transocean and Halliburton were grilled by lawmakers in back-to-back hearings on Capitol Hill Tuesday. Industry executives from all three corporations began with prepared testimony that involved blaming each other for the explosion and deflecting responsibility for the unfolding environmental and economic disaster. We air excerpts and speak with marine biologist Rick Steiner. For the past week he has been working at the site of the oil spill and on the Louisiana coast, where he collected several samples of the oil washing up ashore.If confirmed, the fifty-year-old Elena Kagan would be the Court’s youngest member. She would become the fourth female Supreme Court justice in US history and the third on the Court’s current bench. She would also be the first justice in nearly four decades without any prior judicial experience. Kagan’s nomination has divided progressives in part because so little is known about her judicial views. Her nomination sparked a heated debate between two noted legal commentators: Harvard Law professor Lawrence Lessig and constitutional law attorney and Salon blogger, Glenn Greenwald. "Democracy Now!" is a daily independent newshour.
GRITtv: Should We Do Away With the Senate?
With the election of Scott Brown to Ted Kennedy's former Senate seat, Democrats in DC seemed to give up on getting any major legislation passed. 59 votes (well, 58 and Joe Lieberman) was just not good enough. The blame has been flying -- it's Obama's fault, Rahm Emanuel's, Harry Reid's -- but what if the problem simply is the Senate? What can we change? Would eliminating the filibuster -- the so-called "nuclear option" back when Republicans were suggesting it -- be enough, or is the Senate, with its two-Senators-per-state-regardless-of-population mandate, just too fundamentally undemocratic? We ask the New Yorker's Hendrik Hertzberg, author of OBAMANOS!: The Rise of a New Political Era, Lawrence Lessig, Harvard professor and author of a new Nation cover story on the subject, and Nancy Scola of the Personal Democracy Forum.
GRITtv: Lawrence Lessig: If You Want Change, Change Congress
President Obama promised change in Washington, but one year in we've got nothing but gridlock. Professor Lawrence Lessig has known Obama for years, and in this video from our friends at The Nation, Lessig calls on Obama -- and all of us -- to push for real change: change in Congress. We'll be discussing this issue with Lessig and others on the show soon!
Democracy Now!: Fri., Feb. 5, 2010
With the Super Bowl just two days away, CBS is coming under criticism for accepting an anti-abortion ad paid for by Focus on the Family. We get reaction from Cecile Richards of Planned Parenthood and sportswriter Dave Zirin, author of "A People’s History of Sports in the United States," who says the New Orleans Saints’ Super Bowl appearance — at least for the moment — is boosting spirits in New Orleans on a level unseen since Hurricane Katrina andexplains how the Super Bowl spectacle continues to be used to promote US militarization. Harvard law professor Lawrence Lessig argues that “Congress is the core of the problem with American democracy today.” Yemeni journalist Nasser Arabyee says US involvement undermines sound response to Yemen-based militants. "Democracy Now!" is a daily independent newshour.
