Judging for Dollars The role of Citizens United in Judicial Selection
With
Adam Skaggs, Counsel in the Democracy Program,
Brennan Center for Justice, NYU School of Law

Citizens United v Federal Election Commission, (2010), was
a landmark decision by the United States Supreme Court
holding that corporate funding of independent political
broadcasts in candidate elections cannot be limited under the
First Amendment. Skaggs discussses the likely impact of
corporate and special interest money on judicial elections as
a result of the Citizens United decision including its impact
on eroding confidence in the judicial system.

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Prostrated At the Altar of the Balanced Budget: Sacrificing Social Security, Medicare, and Economic Recovery
with
James Galbraith, Lloyd M. Bentsen, Jr. Chair in Gov't/ Business Relations, Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, University of Texas at Austin

The Simpson-Bowles deficit reduction Commission established by the president, will deliver an attack on Social Security and Medicare dressed up in the sanctimonious rhetoric of deficit reduction. The Obama spending freeze is another sacrifice to the deficit gods. But, the deficit phobia of Wall Street, the press, some economists and practically all politicians is one of the deepest dangers that we face. It's not just the old and the sick who are threatened; we all are. To cut federal budget deficits without first rebuilding the economy is a sure path to stagnation, to a double-dip recession--even to a second Great Depression.
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It's Time to Play "Social Security Survivor"
with
Gerald W. McEntee, Pres., American Federation of State, County
and Municipal Employees

A broad coalition of groups has been formed to defend Social Security. Of all the ideas proposed this one comes from AFSCME President Gerald W. McEntee: A new reality show starring the people who want to cut Social Security. He suggests having John Boehner, billionaire
benefit-cut advocate Peter G. Peterson, and Deficit Commission chairs Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles live for a year on the average Social Security benefit of $14,000.

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Arizona, the Anti-Immigrant Testing Ground
with
Isabel Garcia, Director, Pima County Legal Defender's Officeand Co-chair, Coalition de Derechos Humanos

Arizona While a federal judge blocked key controversial provisions of Arizona's new immigration legislation, one of the harshest anti-immigrant laws ever passed in the United States still went into effect on July 29 in that state and the injunction imposed on part of the legislation will be appealed. Eighteen other states are poised to enact similar legislation – pending the outcome of the Arizona litigation. We’ll head to Arizona to analyze the confluence of the immigration, military, border, and economic policies that has made it the country's primary laboratory forimplementing draconian immigration policies.
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PlusBoycott Arizona

The Urban Nomad covers the first press conference of the Sound Strike movement, led by Zack De La Rocha and Tom Morello from Rage Against the Machine and Conor Oberst of Bright Eyes. They are organizing a large group of musicians, from Kanye West, to NIN to boycott playing in Arizona, in defiance of their newly enacted immigration law, SB1070. And, in protest of AZ anti-immigrant law, Outernational featuring Tom Morello & Cuéntame have produced a moving version of Woody Guthrie’s song “Deportee” that highlights the struggles and lives of migrants and "deportees" across the country today.

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Fed Up Hyatt Workers Protest Nationwide – Hundreds Arrested
with
. Jessie Ham, Hyatt Regency, Indianapolis where workers are in an organizing drive
. Chris Saez, Shop Steward, Hyatt McCormick, Chicago
. Annemarie Strassel, National Spokesperson, UNITE HERE Hotel Workers Rising Campaign

Facing layoffs and cutbacks, thousands of hotel workers in 15 cities across North America held demonstrations recently, protesting Hyatt and its billionaire ownership family, the Pritzkers—one of the wealthiest and most politically influential families in America. As part of these actions, hundreds of workers and supporters took arrest in coordinated acts of non-violent civil disobedience to express their outrage at how the company is trying to make the recession permanent for workers by outsourcing, slashing jobs and workers' hours at its hotels across the country, despite significantly improving industry conditions and Hyatt's rising share value.

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Another Blow To Democracy :
Defense Attorney Lynne Stewart Given A 10 Year Prison Sentence

Seventy-year old attorney Lynne Stewart, was resentenced to ten years in prison by Manhattan District Court Judge John Koeltl, after an appeals court ruled that her original twenty-eight month prison term was too light. As the 120 month sentence was pronounced attorney Stewart’s supporters, who packed the large overflow courtroom gasped in disbelief and dismay, sobs were audible. Attorney Stewart, visibly shaken rose slowly “I’m somewhat stunned, Judge, by the swift change in my outlook,” she said. “We will continue to struggle on to take all available options to do what we need to do to change this.” She added: “I feel like I let a lot of my good people down,” to which her numerous supporters responded by calling out their belief in her and pledged ongoing support. The sentence was the latest grim chapter where the government has used attorney Stewart to send a chilling message to the legal community to be wary of representation of defendants whom it distains the views of. We’ll bring you excerpts of the reactions to the resentencing with Stewart’s attorney, family and supporters – who vow to intensify their efforts to Free Lynne Stewart.

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Building Bridges: Your Community and Labor Report
National Edition
Produced by Ken Nash and Mimi Rosenberg
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South and North of the Border
with
Mark Weisbrot, Co-Director, Center for Economic & Policy Research, Pres. of Just Foreign Policy, & screen writer of the new Oliver Stone documentary “South of the Border”

Producer Director Oliver Stone and screenwriters Mark Weisbrot and Tariq Ali celebrate the new reality of the independence won by most of the countries of Latin America from U.S. hegemony. They shed new light upon the exciting transformations in the region. We’ll also speak with Mark Weisbrot about developments north of the border and how the U.S. is imposing at home the kind of austerity blood letting that it once reserved for poor indebted countries, including the looming attack on the Social Security Trust Fund which will come when Pres. Obama’s National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform makes it’s recommendations after the elections.
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Latin American President Responding To International Economic Crisis Advocates Abolition of the International Monetary Fund
with
Rafeal Correa, President of Ecuador

Continuing on our theme of exploring the growing independence ofLatin America from U.S. dominance, Building Bridges brings you high-lights of Ecuadoran President Correa’s presentation on the crisis of global capital, to a packed chamber at the UN at a Conference on economic development. Correa sharply criticized the policies of the International Monetary Fund and went so far as to advocate its abolition. He then proceeded with a sharp critique of capitalism’s relentless drive for profits,

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Fixing A Broken Immigration System: Latino Immigrants Rights Leadership Respond To Obama
with
Oscar Chacon, Executive Director, National Alliance of Latin American and Caribbean Communities (NALACC)
and
Benita Jain, Co-Director, Immigrant Defense Project, New York Univ.

Following the major speech by President Obama on immigration, and in the wake of rising xenophobic and racist attacks against the immigrant populations, immigrant rights advocates critique what is at the core of our current policy - that today’s immigrants pose a threat to the nation, and discuss what a new U.S. immigration law that is humane, fair & visionary should look like.
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Mott’s Applesauce Management Is Rotten To The Core
with
Mike LeBerth, President, Local 220 RWDSU
and
Fred Acevedo, Mott's Worker, Member Local 220

More than 300 workers were forced to strike after being treated like a bunch of rotten apples by overpaid executives like CEO Larry Young who made $6.5 million last year in total compensation. The workers’ contract at the Williamson, N.Y. plant owned by Dr. Pepper Snapple expired April 16 and the company demanded a $1.50 per hour wage cut for all workers, a pension freeze for current employees and elimination of a pension for future employees, decreased employer contributions to the company’s 401(k) retirement plan and increased employee contributions toward health care premiums and co-pays.

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Que Viva Puerto Rico Libre!
with
Dylcia Pagan, former Puerto Rican political prisoner, who spent nearly 20 years in prison for her involvement in the Puerto Rican Independence Movement
and
Jan Susler, attorney, distinguished for her work with the Puerto Rican Independence Movement, having represented Puerto Rican political prisoners for over two decades. Served as lead counsel in the efforts culminating in the 1999 presidential commutation of the sentences of 16 Puerto Rican nationalist prisoners

Puerto Rico has endured over 100 years of colonialism by the US. Today it is still a colony that continues vehemently to ask for its basic democratic right of self-determination. Susler discusses the recent hearings on the status of Puerto Rico at the UN Decolonization Committee Hearings on Puerto Rico and Pagan evaluates the status of the Independence Movement and events on the Island now especiallyhighlighing Governor Fortuño's reneging on the deal made with student protesters at the University of Puerto Rico.

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A Mavi Marmara Survivor - The Next Steps Toward Victory
with
Rev. Herbert Daughtry, Pastor House of the Lord Pentecostal Church
and
Kevin Ovenden, a representative from Viva Palestina

When Israeli naval commandos stormed a Turkish ship loaded with humanitarian aid for the people of Gaza. They murdered 9 unarmed passengers. The oldest, Ibrahim Bilgen, was 61. the youngest, Furkan Dogan, a U.S. citizen born in Troy , N.Y., was just 19. Kevin Ovenden, international organizer working to break the blockade of Gaza was an eyewitness to this horror and spoke at a packed meeting in Brooklyn’s historic House of the Lord Pentecostal Church, pastured by the Rev. Herbert Daughtry. He spoke not only about the horror he witnessed butabout the next strategic steps forward to ending the blockade and freeing Palestine.

On June 14, City Council speaker Christine Quinn, Reps. Jerry Nadler, Anthony Weiner, Carolyn Mahoney, Charles Rangel & Manhattan BoroughPresident Scott Stringer gathered in Times Square at the behest of the "Jewish Community Relations Council." They shamelessly demanded that the State Department investigate Kevin Ovenden and the other invited speakers for "ties to terrorism." As a result, another witness to the atrocity a former Turkish parliament member and human rights activist Ahmet Faruk Unsal, was not allowed to board a plane from Turkey to join the event at the House of the Lord Church. This was a clear attempt to not only deny the passengers' right to speak but to deny the people of the United States theright to hear their words.

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Selections from Building Bridges Live Coverage
OF MASS RALLY OF NYC PUBLIC WORKERS
AGAINST THE CUTS!

With
. Michael Mulgrew, Pres., United Federation of Teachers
. Judy Wessler, Dir., Commission on the Public’s Health System
. John Samuelsen, Pres. , Transport Workers Union, Local 100
. Ed Ott, Distinguished Lecturer, Murphy Inst.of Workers Studies,
CUNY; former Executive Director, NYC Central Labor Council
. David Jones, Pres. & CEO of the Community Service Society

A coalition of municipal labor unions, turned out tens of thousands of
workers and community activits to protest job losses and service cuts
that will permanently alter the lives of NYC workers and residents.
Mayor Bloomberg is sharpening his carving knife and on the chopping
block are thousands of civil service jobs: educators, transit workers,
public health, social service workers, and library workers. The loss of
these jobs mean reduced transit services, education, healthcare, fire
services, and the myriad services provided by public sector workers.
And, as the city hemorrhages public sector jobs and services, it
aggressively advances the privatization of public sector jobs and the
services they provide. It’s an all out attack on public sector unions and
the workers, and benefits those unions fought for. So in the fight for its
life, public workers and their unions say hell no to pro-corporate
policies that serve the wealthy at the expense of the majority.

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Play 3-5 pm

Play 5-6pm

Above are links to the
WBAI (99.5FM) Live coverage of June 16 labor rally
against budget cutbacks at City Hall.
Hosted by Ken Nash and Mimi Rosenberg, co-hosts of
"Building Bridges: Your Community and Labor Report,"
regularly heard Mondays at 7pm.

You can also download sound by going to the WBAI archives
http://archive.wbai.org/allshows.php
for June 16 3-6 pm

A coalition of municipal labor unions, are fed up and can’t take it anymore –
they’re saying that job losses and service cuts will permanently alter the lives
of City workers and the city’s residents. The Mayor is sharpening his carving
knife and on the chopping block are thousands of civil service jobs, educators,
transit workers, public health and social service workers, and library workers.
The loss of these jobs mean we are all faced with reduced transit services,
education, healthcare, and fire services, and the myriad services provided
by public sector workers. And, at the same time the city hemorrhages public
sector jobs and services, it aggressively advances the privatization of public
sector jobs and the services and resources they provide. Hey, it’s an all out
attack on public sector unions and the workers, and benefits those unions
fought for. So in the fight for its life, public workers and their unions say hell
no to pro-corporate policies that serve the wealthy at the expense of the
majority of New Yorkers.

The broadcast included the voices from the demonstration including
speeches, special interviews, and analysis of recent budget decisions
of Mayor Bloomberg, the City Council, and Governor Paterson, and the
State Legislature in Albany.

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Domestic Workers Urge NYS Pass Fair Labor Standards In 2010
with
Barbara Young, Domestic Workers United, Ed Ott, labor activist, Hector Figueroa, Sec. Treasurer Local 32BJ, George Gresham, 1199 SEIU Pres., Esther Cooper Jackson, civil rights activist, State Senator Diane Savino, N.Y. City Councilwoman Gale Brewer

Legendary Civil Rights-era activist Esther Cooper Jackson, distinguished labor activists alongside of cheering nannies, housekeepers, and elderly caregivers raised their voices in tribute to domestic workers and demanded basic benefits, such as paid leave, and notice, & protection from discrimination by passage of Senator Diane Savino’s andAssemblyman Keith Wright's Domestic Workers Bill of Rights which would make it the first, and hopefully not the last state to give justice to domestic workers.Recently both the NYS Senate and Assembly passed differing versions of the domestic workers bill of rights. The bill is in conference committee and then goes to Governor Patterson for his signature or veto.

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An Israeli In Palestine: Resisting Dispossession
with
Jeff Halper, Founder, Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions

The actions of the brave band of activists from the Freedom flotilla
to break Israel’s blockade of gaza has resulted in worldwide
condemnation of the blockade and the suffering it has caused. But
what of the wider apartheid policies of the state of Israel towards
the Palestinian people both within Israel and in the occupied
territories? Drawing on his many years of directly challenging Israel’s
treatment of the Palestinians, Jeff Halper offers one of the most
insightful analyses of the occupation you’ll hear. Halper discusses
how Israel can not maintain its exclusive Jewish character without
imposing on the Palestinian population policies of ethnic cleansing,
occupation and discrimination, expressed most graphically in its
ongoing demolition of thousands of Palestinian homes, both inside
Israel and in the Occupied Territories. His voice cries out to be
heard as does the plight of the Palestinian people.

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Israel, Palestine and US
With
George Galloway, former British Parliament Member
and founder Viva Palestina

We present a wide ranging interview with George Galloway on the
key role of the U.S. maintaining Israeli apartheid policies towards the
Palestinians. Galloway talks about the recent challenges to the Israeli
blockade of Gaza, possible changes in U.S. public opinion and the
Obama Adminstration’s views on Israel and Palestine as well his
evolving views on a one state solution.

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The State of Working America
with
. Avis Jones-DeWeever, Director of Research & Public Policy,
National Council of Negro Women
. Juan Cartagena, General Counsel & Vice Pres. of Advocacy,
Community Service Society,
. Robert Pollin, Co- Dir., Political Economy Research Institute
& economics professor, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

The United States is experiencing its worst jobs crisis since the
Great Depression. Nearly 16 million Americans, our family, friends,
and neighbors are out of work. This national crisis demands a bold
plan to put people back to work. We must understand why there’s
a jobs crisis, and create a plan that would create millions of jobs
each year, every year. We do the analysis of the jobs crisis and
discuss what must be done to put America back to work.

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TWU Local 100 – Keep America Moving - Fighting Layoffs
FeaturingJohn Samuelsen, President, TWU, Local 100
Rev. Jesse Jackson, President, Rainbow PUSH Coalition
Larry Hanley. ATU International Vice President

2500 Transit workers and supporters rallied at NYC’s Penn Station in an event timed to coincide with other actions taken around the nation to protest the insufficiency of federal funding for mass transit. The Rev. Jesse Jackson spoke as part of the Keep America Moving Coalition, an alliance of transit workers, advocates for workers and the poor, and environmentalists. For Local 100, the event was not only about Keep America Moving, but also about the immanent layoff of hundreds of Station Agents with threats of many more layoffs in other titles including bus drivers. Union members expressed their profound anger over the firings, which are seen as unnecessary because of the availability of $140 million in federal stimulus funds which could be used to cover operating expenses.
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The Greek Meltdown
with
Prof. Costas Panayotakis, Professor of Sociology,NYC College of Technology, CUNY.

After weeks of massive, tumultuous worker protests over the austerity measures being forced on the Greece as part of the EU rescue package, the measures were approved by the Greek Parliament and the leaders of the European Union. The $146 billion three-year package would indirectly bail out the European banks that hold most of the Greek debt.by attempting to solve the crisis on the backs of ordinary Greeks. It raises taxes as well as imposes deep cuts in public sector wages and pensions in both public and private sectors. If it indeed works as intended, it will intensify the Greek recession, unemployment and poverty. This may exacerbate the very debt crisis it is supposed to solve

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Taking the Bull by the Horns: Labor Takes on Wall Street

Thousands of people marched on Wall Street April 29, in a major protest of financial sector greed and lending practices by big banks. Taking to the streets of downtown Manhattan, 10,000 labor and community groups shouted and jeered at the offices surrounding them, demanding three major changes to Wall Street culture. The first is to call off the lobbyists fighting regulatory reform. The second is to stop the incessant focus on market speculation over business lending. The third is to tax Wall Street to fund job creation The rally, was one of the largest in recent memory to take place at the epicenter of finance capital Wall Street.
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The Socialist Bank of North Dakota with Dr Rozanne Everson Junker, political scientist

We’ve talked about a public option in health careBut what about for the banks?
Thanks to Michael Moore we have this case study.

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Thousands Gather For May Day, Immigrant Rights Rally In Arizona
with
Isabel Garcia, Director of the Pima County Legal Defenders and Co-chair of the Coalition de Derechos Humanos, Arizona
and
Leilani Clark, Youth Organizer, Coalition de Derechos Humanos

Immigrants rights organizers report on the tens of thousands of immigrant rights demonstrators who rallied on May Day in Arizona to protest the tough new immigration law 1070, and state and federal law enforcement harassment of Arizona’s immigrants, as they demand that stalled legislative reforms in Congress proceed.

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Will Obama Stop The Supreme Court’s Gallop To The Right
with
Theodore Shaw, former Director-Counsel and President of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, where he litigated civil rights cases at the US Supreme Court, and former trial attorney in the Civil Rights Division, US Department of Justice

On the retirement of Justice John Paul Stevens we’ll look at the myth and reality of his legacy, possible nominees to replace him and the current and seemingly continuing drift to the right of the US Supreme Court and whether the Obama Administration is likely to or can move beyond appeasement of the center-right.

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Massey Energy Company Flaunts Power, Evades Regulation and Miners Die
with
. Tony Oppegard, Former General Counsel, Kentucky Dept. of Mine Safety
. Wes Addington, Mine Safety Project, Appalachian Citizens’ Law Center

PLUS
Mine Workers Pres. Roberts:
Massey’s Blankenship Should Be Jailed

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Massey Energy Company Flaunts Power, Evades Regulation and Miners Die
with
. Tony Oppegard, Former General Counsel, Kentucky Dept. of Mine Safety
. Wes Addington, Mine Safety Project, Appalachian Citizens’ Law Center

Owners of the Upper Branch Mine were warned over two years ago about a pattern of violations, which would have allowed far stricter federal oversight of the mine. But, while it continued to amass violations, the Mine Safety & Health Administration allowed Massey Energy Co.to avoid meaningful discipline, and the question as 29 miners die is what must be done to beef up mine-safety enforcement?

PLUS
Mine Workers Pres. Roberts:
Massey’s Blankenship Should Be Jailed

In a speech at the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO convention, Mine Workers
(UMWA) President Cecil Roberts says that Massey Energy Co.’s
continued inaction on safety violations at its Upper Big Branch Mine,
should send Massey CEO Donald Blankenship to jail.

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