Lena Horne died this week at the age of 92. More than just a brilliant singer and actress, she was a pioneering civil rights activist, breaking racial barriers for generations of African-Americans who have followed her. She fought segregation and McCarthyism, was blacklisted, yet persisted to gain worldwide fame and success. Her grandmother signed her up as the youngest member of the NAACP as a 14-month-old. Read More [...]
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Massey Energy runs the Upper Big Branch (UBB) mine in Montcoal, W.Va., where 29 miners were killed last week. The loss of life is tragic, but the UBB explosion is more than tragic; it is criminal. When corporations are guilty of crimes, however, they don’t go to prison, they don’t forfeit their freedom—they just get fined, which often amounts to a slap on the wrist, the cost of doing business. No one makes this clearer than the CEO of Massey Energy, Don Blankenship. Read More [...] Following the Israeli siege, Alice Walker visited Gaza in March 2009 along with a 60-member international delegation led by Code Pink. Walking among the ruins, she spoke to Democracy Now! producer Anjali Kamat. [...] Date: April 13, 2010 Time: 5:00 pm Location: 207 West 25th Street, 11th Floor New York, NY 10001 Tickets: $1,000/person Click here to purchase your tickets today. Support Democracy Now! as we launch our new green TV/radio/internet broadcast studios with Alice Walker! Be one of our guests at Amy’s birthday celebration at Democracy Now! ‘s new green TV/radio/internet broadcast studios with Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Color Purple , Alice Walker, get a tour of the studio, and then enjoy reserved seats at the 92nd Street Y for Amy and Alice’s discussion: On Activism . (Transportation from Democracy Now! to 92nd Street Y will be provided.) AND, purchase tickets for this event as well as A Democracy Now! Evening with Michael Moore and Patti Smith on April 26 for $1,500. All proceeds support Democracy Now!, the largest public media collaboration in the country. Ticket purchases are tax deductible except for $95 per ticket, which is the value of goods and services received. Because this event takes place in Democracy Now!’s studios, a limited number of tickets are available. For tickets to Amy and Alice’s conversation at the 92nd Street Y ONLY (reception not included), click here. [...] Scholar Tariq Ramadan was banned from the United States for six years. He’s just been allowed back in and arrived in New York on Wednesday night. Tune in to Democracy Now! Friday for an extended interview with Tariq Ramadan, Professor of Contemporary Islamic Studies at the University of Oxford in the UK. He’s speaking at Cooper Union, New York Thursday night on Secularism, Islam, and Democracy: Muslims in Europe and the West [...] We speak with two journalists who have covered Gaza extensively about the dangers and difficulties of reporting from the Occupied Territories. Mohammed Omer, an award-winning Palestinian journalist was interrogated and beaten by armed Israeli security guards on his way back home to Gaza after receiving the prestigious Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism in London in July of 2008, and Ayman Mohyeldin, the Gaza correspondent for Al Jazeera English, who was one of the only international journalists reporting from inside Gaza during the 22-day Israeli assault last year. Watch Part I of this conversation here . [...] A United States military video was released this week showing the indiscriminate targeting and killing of civilians in Baghdad. The nonprofit news organization WikiLeaks obtained the video and made it available on the Internet. The video was made July 12, 2007, by a U.S. military Apache helicopter gunship, and includes audio of military radio transmissions. Two Reuters employees—a journalist and his driver—were killed in the attack, along with at least eight other people, and two children were injured. The radio transmissions show not only the utter callousness of the soldiers, laughing and swearing as they kill, but also the strict procedure they follow, ensuring that all of their attacks are clearly authorized by their chain of command. The leaked video is a grim depiction of how routine the killing of civilians has become, and is a stark reminder of how necessary journalism is, and how dangerous its practice has become. Read More [...] President Barack Obama has just returned from his first trip as commander in chief to Afghanistan. The U.S.-led invasion and occupation of that country are now in their ninth year, amid increasing comparisons to Vietnam. Daniel Ellsberg, whom Henry Kissinger once called “the most dangerous man in America,” leaked the Pentagon Papers in 1971. Ellsberg, who was a top Pentagon analyst, photocopied this secret, 7,000-page history of the U.S. role in Vietnam and released it to the press, helping to end the Vietnam War. [...] Part II of our conversation with Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg. He speaks on the under-reported leaked memos of US Ambassador to Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry, US Policy on Iran, and more. In 1971, the then-RAND Corporation analyst Daniel Ellsberg leaked to the media what became known as the Pentagon Papers, a 7,000-page classified history outlining the true extent of US involvement in Vietnam. He’s calling for a new whistleblower to come forward today. Watch Part I HERE [...] Amy made her third appearance on CNN’s new show, John King USA on March 29th at 7pm ET. If you want to see more of Amy on CNN’s John King USA, please let them know at: |
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