Evo Morales knows about “change you can believe in.” He also knows what happens when a powerful elite is forced to make changes it doesn’t want.
Filed under Weekly Column
Alice Walker is the first African-American woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. But Monday, I called her to talk about a true story. The Obamas had just visited the White House. The first African-American elected president of the United States had visited his soon-to-be residence, a house built by slaves.
Filed under Weekly Column
Filed under D.N. in the News
Democracy Now! producer Anjali Kamat writes, “To all those for whom America has represented generations of racial injustice, the election of America’s first Black president marks the beginning of a new era…But unless the inspired millions who brought him to power continue to believe their demands matter and insist on holding him accountable each step of the way, it will be Obama’s corporate and hawkish friends who determine the domestic and foreign policies of the coming administration and our collective future.”
Filed under D.N. in the News
You could almost hear the world’s collective sigh of relief. This year’s U.S. presidential election was a global event in every sense. Barack Hussein Obama, the son of a black Kenyan father and a white Kansan mother, who grew up in Indonesia and Hawaii, represents to so many a living bridge—between continents and cultures.
Filed under Weekly Column
The legendary radio broadcaster, writer and oral historian Studs Terkel has died at the age of 96 in Chicago. Over the years Terkel has been a regular guest on Democracy Now!
In 2005, Studs Terkel appeared on Democracy Now! shortly after undergoing open heart surgery. He told Amy Goodman, “My curiosity is what saw me through. What would the world be like, or will there be a world? And so, that’s my epitaph. I have it all set. Curiosity did not kill this cat. And it’s curiosity, I think, that has saved me thus far.”
Filed under DN Archives
Election Day approaches, and with it a test of our election system’s integrity. Who will be allowed to vote; who will be barred? Who will get paper ballots; who will use electronic voting machines? Will polls be open long enough to accommodate what is expected to be a historic turnout?
Filed under Weekly Column
The candidates’ coffers are swelling with larger and larger bundles of cash, but don’t hold your breath waiting for the extended television discussions of this, because it’s the broadcasters who profit the most.
Filed under Weekly Column
More Blog Posts »
Democracy Now! offers groundbreaking coverage on the private military company Blackwater Worldwide. The North Carolina-based firm operates under a multi-million dollar contract to protect U.S. officials and facilities. It’s been allowed close to free reign under a murky legal environment that offers little to no oversight over its operations.
Investigative journalist and Democracy Now! correspondent Jeremy Scahill offers regular reports. He is author of “Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army.”
November 19, 2008: Steve Fainaru on ‘Big Boy Rules: America’s Mercenaries Fighting in Iraq’
Top Justice Department prosecutors are reportedly reviewing a draft indictment against six Blackwater security guards who opened fire in a crowded Baghdad square more than a year ago killing seventeen Iraqi civilians. The indictments would mark the first time armed private contractors from the United States face justice. We speak to Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post correspondent Steve Fainaru about his new book Big Boy Rules: America’s Mercenaries Fighting in Iraq.
August 28, 2008: EXCLUSIVE: House Oversight Chair Henry Waxman Calls for Cancellation of Blackwater’s Contract in Iraq
In an exclusive interview with Democracy Now! correspondent Jeremy Scahill, Congressman Henry Waxman, chair of the powerful House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, calls on Sen. Barack Obama to cancel the private military firm Blackwater’s Iraq contract if Obama is elected president. Serious questions remain about what Obama will do with this massive private shadow army in Iraq.
June 02, 2008: Blackwater: From the Nisour Square Massacre to the Future of the Mercenary Industry
May 23, 2008: ‘War, Inc.’: John Cusack’s New Film Satirizes the Corruption, Profiteering and Hubris Behind the Iraq War
May 02, 2008: Southern California Residents Gear Up for New Fight to Stop Secretive Expansion by Military Firm Blackwater
April 07, 2008: State Dept. Renews Blackwater Contract in Iraq Despite Pentagon Labeling Sept. Baghdad Killing of 17 Civilians ‘A Criminal Event’
December 19, 2007: EXCLUSIVE…Blackwater Sued Again For Sept. 9th Attack, Five Iraqis Dead, Ten Wounded
December 19, 2007: TV BROADCAST EXCLUSIVE: Iraqi Witnesses, Victims Describe Blackwater Shooting in Harrowing Detail
December 10, 2007: What is Blackwater’s Role in the 2008 Presidential Race?
November 09, 2007 An Act of Terrorism? Blackwater Sniper Shot Dead Three Iraqi Guards At Iraqi Media Center in February
November 08, 2007: As Blackwater Is Implicated in Another Deadly Shooting in Iraq, Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) Urges Passage of the Stop Outsourcing Security (SOS) Act
October 18, 2007: ‘They Protect People’s Lives’—One Month After Baghdad Killings, Bush Defends Blackwater USA
October 11, 2007: EXCLUSIVE–Family Members of Slain Iraqis Sue Blackwater USA for Deadly Baghdad Shooting
October 11, 2007: Ex-U.S. Official in Iraq on Iraqi Efforts to Ban Blackwater: ‘I Was Surprised it Had Taken This Long’
October 11, 2007: Blackwater Loses Bid to Reject Wrongful Death Suit in Afghan Plane Crash
October 3, 2007: Mr. Prince Goes to Washington: Blackwater Founder Testifies Before Congress
September 27, 2007: Michelle Bachelet on Chilean Troops Working For Blackwater in Iraq and Fujimori’s Extradition to Peru
September 24, 2007:Blackwater Back on Patrol in Baghdad As Shootings Probe Continues
September 18, 2007:Can Iraq (or Anyone) Hold Blackwater Accountable for Killing Iraqi Civilians? A Debate On the Role of Private Contractors in Iraq
May 23, 2007:Pivotal Family Lawsuit Against Blackwater USA Blocked from Court—and Moved to Panel with Company Ties
May 23, 2007:Jeremy Scahill Responds to Blackwater CEO Erik Prince, Visits Blackwater Sites and Prince’s Hometown
May 11, 2007:Author and DN! Correspondent Jeremy Scahill Testifies in Landmark House Hearing on Defense Contracting
April 19, 2007:Blackwater Plans for New Military Facility Near San Diego Draws Fire From Residents, Peace Activists and Local Congressmember
March 21, 2007:Part II–Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army
March 20, 2007:Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army
February 08, 2007:Blackwater USA Takes Congressional Hot-Seat as Landmark Hearing Probes Mercenary Firm’s Role in Iraq
January 26, 2007:Our Mercenaries in Iraq: Blackwater Inc and Bush’s Undeclared Surge
April 20, 2006:Blackwater in the Crosshairs: The Families of Four Private Security Contractors Killed in Fallujah File a Ground-Breaking Lawsuit
February 22, 2006:EXCLUSIVE: Al Jazeera Reporters Give Bloody First Hand Account of April ’04 U.S. Siege of Fallujah
September 23, 2005:Blackwater Down: Fresh From Iraq, Private Security Forces Roam the Streets of an American City With Impunity
September 16, 2005:The Militarization of New Orleans: Jeremy Scahill Reports from Louisiana
September 12, 2005:Overkill: Feared Blackwater Mercenaries Deploy in New Orleans
June 21, 2005:Private Warriors: New PBS Doc Questions Role of Military Contractors in Iraq
December 23, 2004:A New Poverty Draft: Military Contractors Target Latin America For New Recruits
April 01, 2004:Blackwater USA: Building the ‘Largest Private Army in the World’