Democracy Now! Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Today's Headlines

• Senate Approves $819 Billion Stimulus Plan
• Geithner Proposes Spending $2.5 Trillion to Aid Banks, Unfreeze Credit Markets
• Wal-Mart, General Motors Announce Layoffs
• Livni and Netanyahu Both Claim Victory in Israeli Election
• Ahmadinejad: Iran Ready for Talks with US
• Pakistan Releases Nuclear Scientist AQ Khan
• Taliban Attacks Afghan Justice Ministry in Kabul; 19 Killed
• Tsvangirai Sworn In as Zimbabwean Prime Minister
• Obama Urged Not to Pick Tenn. Gov. Bredesen to Head HHS
• Report: 54 Million Americans Will Have No Health Insurance in 2019
• Salazar Slows Down Plan to Expand Offshore Oil and Gas Drilling
• Gates Orders Review of Ban on Photographing Flag-Draped Coffins
• Hundreds of TV Stations Plan to Stop Analog Broadcasts Next Week
• German-Egyptian Activist Freed in Cairo
• Guy Chichester, Clamshell Alliance Co-Founder, 1935-2009

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  Former US President Jimmy Carter: "We Can Have Peace in the Holy Land: A Plan that Will Work"

  As Israelis go to the polls in the country’s early general election, we speak with former US President Jimmy Carter. His latest book is We Can Have Peace in the Holy Land: A Plan that Will Work. President Carter says he wrote the book because President Obama is “facing a major opportunity and responsibility to lead in ending conflict between Israel and its neighbors.” President Carter writes, “The time is now. Peace is possible.” [includes rush transcript]

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  Palestinian Lawmaker Mustafa Barghouti on the Israeli Elections: "Israel Has Completed the Transformation into an Apartheid State"

  With 99 percent of the votes counted Wednesday morning in the Israeli election, Tzipi Livni’s centrist Kadima Party was in first place with twenty-eight seats, while Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud Party was a close second with twenty-seven seats. They are both claiming victory but would need coalition partners to gather the sixty-one seats needed to form a government in the 120-seat Knesset. For analysis of the election results, we are joined by two guests. Dr. Mustafa Barghouti is an independent Palestinian lawmaker and democracy activist. He joins us from Washington, D.C. And on the line from Beersheba, Israel is Neve Gordon, a professor of politics and government at Ben-Gurion University and the author of Israel’s Occupation.