Democracy Now! Friday, August 8, 2008

Today's Headlines

• Bin Laden Driver Given Lenient Sentence
• Iraqi Officials: Agreement Reached on US Withdrawal
• China Policies Draw Scrutiny as Olympic Games Begin
• US Admits Nuclear Submarine Leak
• Pakistan Lawmakers to Impeach Musharraf
• Rep. Green Calls on Pentagon to Explain Promotion of Threat-Wielding Recruiter
• Mukasey Appoints Torture Backer as Chief of Staff
• Anthrax Suspect Supported Anti-Gay Group
• Texas Executes Another Foreign National
• Judge Upholds Denver DNC Protest Restrictions
• Daschle in Talks with Ethanol Lobby
• Oxfam: Stop Criminalizing HIV
• Court Rules US Owes Native Americans $455M for Land Drilling
• Report: Sleep Deprivation Continued Despite Gitmo Ban
• 20th Anniversary of “8-8-88” Uprising in Burma

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  Summer Olympic Games Open in Beijing, Pro-Tibet Protester Deported to US

  The eyes of the world are focused on China today as the Summer Olympic Games open in Beijing. One big question centers on whether the Olympic Committee and the Chinese government will allow any public protests during the Games. We speak with an activist who was arrested in China and deported after unfurling a Tibet independence banner close to the main Olympic stadium. [includes rush transcript]

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  "This is the Olympics the West Wanted" - Dave Zirin on US Corporations Entering China, Athletes Speaking Out and the Games from '68 to Today

  As the 2008 Summer Olympic Games open in Beijing, we speak with sportswriter Dave Zirin. “This is the Olympics the West wanted: games where the grandest prize is not a gold medal but a glittering entree to China’s seemingly endless army of potential consumers,” writes Zirin. “This is the reason that George W. Bush will attend the opening ceremonies, the first U.S. President to do so on foreign soil.” [includes rush transcript]

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  The Wrecking Crew: Thomas Frank on How Conservatives Rule

  Columnist and author Thomas Frank joins us to talk about his latest book, The Wrecking Crew. Frank writes, “Fantastic misgovernment of the kind we have seen is not an accident, nor is it the work of a few bad individuals. It is the consequence of triumph by a particular philosophy of government, by a movement that understands the liberal state as a perversion and considers the market the ideal nexus of human society. This movement is friendly to industry not just by force of campaign contributions but by conviction.” [includes rush transcript]