nathan newman
GRITtv: Jane Hamsher & Nathan Newman: Taxes, Marijuana and More on the Ballot
"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, formerly 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.
Email this pageGRITtv: Jane Hamsher: Time Has Come for Marijuana
Jane Hamsher discusses the campaign for legalizing marijuana in California, the various motives, and voter turnout. Distributed by Tubemogul.
GRITtv: A Progressive Case for States' Rights?
As the health care bill drags toward a finish line, conservative opponents of the bill are raising a specter with some long history--"States' Rights." They claim to be able to nullify the federal reform bill on the state level, but the argument for states' rights has been made before to prevent progressive action from being taken, particularly around racial equality. Dedrick Muhammad, senior organizer at the Institute for Policy Studies, and Nathan Newman, executive director of the Progressive States Network, join Laura to talk about what states' rights really means, and how it can be good for progressives as well as bad.
GRITtv: Nathan Newman: Not A Real Debate About Federalism
Nathan Newman of the Progressive States Network says that conservatives don't really care about states' rights; they just want to prevent others' rights. 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 at http://grittv.org.
GRITtv: Not Too Late to Stimulate Economy Equitably
The House of Representatives passed the the Jobs for Main Street Act on Dec. 16, right before winter break. With the Senate poised to take it up and the country still hurting from the recession despite Wall Street's record profits, we ask a panel of experts what Congress and the administration need to do to ensure that stimulus funds get spent on the people who need them most. Nathan Newman of the Progressive States Network, Jacob Faber of the Center for Social Inclusion, Harry Moroz, researcher with the Drum Major Institute and contributor to the Huffington Post, and Aaron Glantz, Stimulus Editor for New America Media and author of The War Comes Home: Washington's Battle against America's Veterans join us to debate whether the stimulus created jobs or just saved them, whether it saved enough of them, and where the money most needs to be spent to really end the economic crisis--for all Americans. Thanks to the Huffington Post Investigative Fund for video in this segment.
GRITtv: The Stimulus: Too Little, Too Late?
Max Fraad Wolff, professor of economics at The New School, Myles Lennon of the Laborers' Union, Local #10, Bettina Damiani of Good Jobs First and Nathan Newman of the Progressive States Network debate whether the stimulus has stopped the bleeding or whether it's more like a band-aid on a bullet wound. Beyond just creating jobs, they say, any real economic stimulus needs to make sure that the jobs created are good, with good benefits, living wages, and targeted to the people who need them the most.
