Democracy Now! Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Today's Headlines

• Report: US to Send up to 15,000 More Troops to Afghanistan
• Taliban Launches Most Serious Attacks Since 2001
• NATO Suspends Formal Contacts with Russia
• US & Poland Sign Missile Base Deal
• Obama Challenges McCain on His Ties to Musharraf
• NRA Spy Scandal Linked to McCain Campaign
• Five Protesters Arrested for Unfurling “Free Tibet” Banner in Beijing
• Pakistan’s Sharif Threatens to Pull Out of Coalition Government
• NYC & D.C. Area to Track License Plate Numbers
• Court Overturns Bush Rule on Monitoring Emissions
• Mexico Urged to Investigate Killings of Journalists
• NYC Agrees to Pay 52 Anti-War Protesters $2 Million

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  Iowa Town Turned into "Open-Air Prison" as Wives of Men Arrested in Largest Immigration Raid in US History Forbidden to Work...or Leave

  Three months after the largest immigration raid in US history, when nearly 400 workers were arrested at a meatpacking plant, Postville, Iowa is a changed town. Postville lost more than a quarter of its population in the raid. And for those left behind, namely the wives and children of the men taken away, the town has been turned into what some have described as an open-air prison. Dozens of immigrant women remain in Postville without status or a means of support. Many of them are even forbidden from leaving and have been made to wear electronic monitoring bracelets. [includes rush transcript]

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  The Limits of Power: Andrew Bacevich on the End of American Exceptionalism

  Andrew Bacevich is a conservative historian who spent twenty-three years serving in the US Army. He also lost his son in Iraq last year. In a new book titled The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism, Bacevich argues that although many in this country are paying a heavy price for US domestic and foreign policy decisions, millions of Americans simply continue to shop, spend and satisfy their appetite for cheap oil, credit and the promise of freedom at home. Bacevich writes, “As the American appetite for freedom has grown, so too has our penchant for empire.”