Democracy Now! Thursday, April 24, 2008

Today's Headlines

• Clinton, Obama Set Sights on Indiana
• Senate GOPers Block Pay Discrimination Bill
• House Votes to Block Admin Cuts of Medicaid
• Top Iraq Generals Get Promoted
• Israeli Blockade Could Halt UN Shipments to Gaza
• Israel: Bush Secretly Endorsed Settlement Expansion
• Syria Says Israel Has Offered to Return Golan
• Slain Palestinian Journalist Remembered in Gaza
• ALBA Leaders Launch Joint Food Effort
• US Food Chains to Ration Rice Sales
• Survey: 60% of EPA Scientists Witness Political Interference
• CIA Holds 7,000 Docs on Secret Prisons, Interrogations

• 

  The US Role in Haiti's Food Riots

  As people around the world continue to protest the soaring prices of basic food items, the World Food Program has described the crisis as a silent tsunami. The head of the Food and Agriculture Organization blamed the current global food crisis on “inappropriate” policy decisions over the past two decades. Nowhere is this more clear than in Haiti, where hungry people are rioting in the streets because they cannot afford to buy rice. Haiti imports most of its rice from the United States, which in turn remains heavily subsidized. We speak with human rights lawyer, Bill Quigley. [includes rush transcript]

• 

  Thousands of Delegates Tackle Climate Change Issues at UN Forum on Indigenous Issues

  Representatives of the world’s 370 million indigenous people are gathered at the United Nations this week to demand that their voices be included in future talks on climate change. Over 3,000 delegates are attending the seventh session of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. We speak with Casey Camp-Horinek, a member of the Ponca Nation of Oklahoma. [includes rush transcript]

• 

  "Welcome to the Axis of Evil" -- Bolivian President Evo Morales to Paraguayan President-Elect Fernando Lugo

  Bolivian President Evo Morales came to New York this week to deliver the keynote address at the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. Morales became Bolivia’s first indigenous president when he was elected in 2005 with more popular support than any Bolivian leader in decades. Democracy Now! co-host Juan Gonzalez had a chance to sit down with President Morales at the Bolivian mission in New York for an interview. Morales discusses issues of world hunger, biofuels and climate change, relations with Paraguayan President-Elect Fernando Lugo, his push to introduce a new constitution in Bolivia, his accusations that the US ambassador is leading a conspiracy against his government, his thoughts on the US presidential elections, and more. [includes rush transcript]

• 

  Up the Yangtze: Documentary Takes on Social Impact of Three Gorges Dam in China

  The Three Gorges Dam along China’s Yangtze River is the world’s largest hydroelectric project and is due to be completed in 2009. Widely touted as a feat of modern engineering, the dam was supposed to stop flooding along the river and provide clean energy to fuel China’s economic boom. But it has also gained notoriety as an environmental and human catastrophe. Up the Yangtze is a critically acclaimed new documentary about the social impact of the Three Gorges Dam. We speak with Chinese Canadian filmmaker Yung Chang. [includes rush transcript]