free speech
Occupy: Rev. Billy's Freak Storm
The change that is in the air, that we all feel. No-one really knows why we are blessed with the common feeling. This same slaughter of the innocents has gone on for so long. This same mystical financing of poisoned farms, of dead oceans, of cancerous children and national false emotions - all this comes at us now as a bad surprise. We have a fresh rage. We have a shout that is honest, thousand of us. We are occupying our civic institutions stolen so long ago by men in suits, and surrounded by confused police. All at once, we want a better life and don't want to wait. Then this discovery: It is a better life to demand a better life! Revolujah!
Email this pageGRITtv: Dec. 8, 2010
"It's the ruling class talking amongst itself," notes Alexander Cockburn of the information that WikiLeaks exposes and governments want to suppress. Meanwhile, Julian Assange is being held without bail, and online it's 4chan versus Mastercard, Xipwire versus PayPal in the fight to keep WikiLeaks open and funded as quickly as the government and corporate entities can shut it down.So what's the real story? Vince Warren of the Center for Constitutional Rights and Alexander Cockburn of The Nation and CounterPunch join Laura to talk WikiLeaks: the charges, real and trumped-up, the free speech issues, and the real news uncovered underneath all the hype.The sixteenth UN Climate Change Conference will wrap up this Friday. While many were frustrated at exclusions of civil society and indigenous groups from official negotiations, others used the occasion to marshal an international grassroots movement that is stronger than ever. ; Here are a few voices from Cancun this week, courtesy of Reuters and independent journalist Tamar Sharabi for Free Speech TV.Everybody's talking about WikiLeaks and the government's right to its private conversations, but what about you and I?
FSTV's Text Petition Vs. Corporate Personhood
Thom Hartmann talks about the importance of fighting the Citizen's United ruling granting corporations personhood. Sign Free Speech for People petition to overturn the ruling by sending the text FSTV to 30644.
GRITtv: An Interview with NAACP's New Chair Roslyn Brock
Free Speech TV's Herb Boyd sat down with Roslyn Brock, new chair of the NAACP's National Board of Directors to talk healthcare, the challenges facing Black communities in the United States today, and what it means to be the 4th woman and the youngest person yet to hold her vital post.
GRITtv: Lisa Graves: Put Corporations in Their Place
In the recent Citizens United case, the Supreme Court struck down critically important laws regulating corporate influence on elections and public policy. We oppose this radical decision by these five unelected men to rewrite the First Amendment and give corporations the inalienable free speech rights of human beings. Huge corporations like Goldman Sachs and AIG will be able to use their enormous wealth to run campaigns against any person who might oppose their agenda. The corruption of lawmaking we've already seen by the big insurance companies, the big banks, and the big oil companies show that this decision will make things worse in our democracy. It's wrong to give corporations the same rights as people. A corporation isn't really a person. We cannot sit on the sidelines and let this decision ruin our democracy. The Constitution is our national charter and belongs to us. Given the gridlock in Washington, I don't think any good legislation fixing this can pass the Senate. The only way to restore the primacy of the people is to amend the Constitution. We should protect the sacred rights of human beings to freedom of speech. We need to make clear that money isn't the same as speech, in order to ensure fair elections. And, we have to put corporations back in their place. It?s hard work but we've got to start somewhere. -- Lisa Graves is the publisher of SourceWatch.org, which writes the history of the people, companies and front groups trying to shape public policy.
RNC 2008 Coverage: Sept. 5: Keep Speech Free at the RNC Part II
A post-John-McCain speech discussion with Laura Flanders of GRIT TV, Ashara Ekundayo of Free Speech TV, Davey D (Dave Cook) the Co-Host of Hard Knock Radio, Bob Moser of Nation Magazine, Farheen Hakeem the Green Party State Rep. Candidate, Rosa Clemente the Green Party 2008 VP Candidate, and Wylie Stecklow an attorney. They discuss John McCain's speech and what he was really saying.
RNC 2008 Coverage: Sept. 5: Keep Speech Free at the RNC Part I
A pre John McCain speech discussion with Laura Flanders of GRIT TV, Ashara Ekundayo of Free Speech TV, Davey D (Dave Cook) the Co-Host of Hard Knock Radio, Ann Elizabeth Moore the Executive Director of Code Pink, Katie Halper the Co-Founder of Laughing Liberally, Bob Moser of Nation Magazine, and Dave Rovics. They discuss the week of the RNC and what they expect to hear from John McCain.
RNC Coverage: Sept. 1 Pt. 1: Amy Goodman Arrested
More than 280 people were arrested here in St. Paul Monday, the opening day of the Republican National Convention. Among them were several journalists covering the protests in the streets, including three of us at Democracy Now! Goodman was detained trying to question police officers about the arrests of Democracy Now! producers Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar.
