Democracy Now! Thursday, February 18, 2010

Today's Headlines

• Obama: Stimulus Saved 2 Million Jobs, Averted Depression
• As US Seizes Marjah, UN Rejects “Militarization” of Aid
• UN: US Restrictions Curbing Aid Efforts in Somalia
• UN Relief Coordinator “Disappointed” in Haiti Response
• UK, Ireland Summon Israeli Ambassadors over Dubai Killing
• 10 Killed in Iraq Bombing
• Interior Minister: Iraq to Seize Weapons from Foreign Contractors
• UN: Cluster Bomb Treaty Could Be Ratified
• Poll: Wide Majority Opposes Supreme Court Ruling on Corporate Electioneering
• Portland Officer Cleared in Fatal Shooting of Unarmed African American
• Va. Governor Rescinds Workplace Protections for Gay Men and Lesbians
• Johns Hopkins Students Disrupt Yoo Speech

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  Nobel Economist Joseph Stiglitz on Obama’s Stimulus Plan, Debt, Climate Change, and “Freefall: America, Free Markets, and the Sinking of the World Economy”

  As President Obama defends the success of his one-year-old $787 billion stimulus package, we speak to Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz, who says the stimulus was both not big enough and too focused on tax cuts. Stiglitz is the author of the new book Freefall: America, Free Markets, and the Sinking of the World Economy, which analyzes the causes of the Great Recession of 2008 and calls for overcoming what he calls an “ersatz capitalism” that socializes losses but privatizes gains. [includes rush transcript]

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  “A Bad Day for America”: Anti-Nuclear Activist Harvey Wasserman Criticizes Obama Plan to Fund Nuclear Reactors

  President Obama has pledged $8.3 billion in loan guarantees needed to build the first nuclear reactors in nearly three decades. The move, along with a tripling of nuclear loan guarantees in the President’s budget, represents a new federal commitment to the nuclear power sector. We speak to independent journalist and longtime anti-nuclear activist Harvey Wasserman, who helped found the grassroots movement against nuclear power in the United States in the 1970s. [includes rush transcript]