Jul
30
2009
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the entire program
The anti-abortion group, Family Research Council, has launched a television ad in several states across the nation, urging a stop to President Obama’s health care reform efforts. They contend that a government option would fund reproductive services like abortion with tax-payer’s money. The issue of women’s reproductive choice has become a potential deal-breaker in the battle over healthcare. But the …
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Jul
30
2009
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the entire program
The New Orleans Race Riot of 1866
Back in the day on July 30th, 1866, a race riot broke outside of the Louisiana Constitutional Convention held in New Orleans. Radical Republicans convened to amend the previous constitution of the Southern state that had failed to enfranchise blacks. They also sought to prohibit former Confederate soldiers from voting. With …
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Jul
30
2009
“There is nothing to fear except the persistent refusal to find out the truth, the persistent refusal to analyze the causes of happenings.” — Dorothy Thompson …
Jul
29
2009
We’ll examine at Governor Schwarzenegger’s use of a line-item veto to trim even more social programs from the state budget. And, how Obama’s position on Israeli settlements will affect prospects for a peace deal. Plus, a look at internal divisions among anti-abortion organizations in the US. …
Jul
29
2009
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the entire program
The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 13-6 along partisan lines to confirm Judge Sonia Sotomayor to a seat on the US Supreme Court. Groups like the National Rifle Association and the anti-abortion Americans United for Life, had spent the past few weeks furiously urging No votes on President Obama’s first Supreme Court Nominee. The lengthy confirmation hearings at which Sotomayor …
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Jul
29
2009
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the entire program
This month, two major victories were won by local communities over corporate control of their water supply. In Shapleigh and Newfield Maine, Nestle’s Poland Spring water company removed all of its bottled water test wells after residents passed ordinances blocking the company from mining water within their boundaries, asserting that residents control their own water supply. In Michigan, …
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Jul
29
2009
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the entire program
President Barack Obama will be playing host tomorrow to African-American scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. and white Cambridge Massachusetts police sergeant James Crowley. The White House meeting between the three has no formally announced agenda, but has been billed as an opportunity for dialogue stemming from the recent disorderly conduct arrest of Gates outside his house by Crowley that …
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Jul
29
2009
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the entire program
The Tipperary Revolt
Back in the day on July 29th, 1848, the Tipperary Revolt ended in an abysmal failure in Ireland. With the potato famine feeding on the lives of the Irish leading many to starvation and immigration, William Smith O’Brien of the Young Irelander movement attempted an armed insurrection aimed at national independence from Britain. The rebellion …
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Jul
29
2009
“Justice in the life and conduct of the State is possible only as first it resides in the hearts and souls of the citizens.” — Plato …
Jul
28
2009
Judge Sonia Sotomayor appears poised to be the nation’s newest Supreme Court Justice, despite stiff Republican opposition. Communities in the US fight Nestle Corporation over water rights, and win! And, our on-going discussion over the truth of a post-racial America in light of the Gates arrest and ensuing controversy. Plus this week’s Who Said That contest. …
