Transcripts For KCSM Democracy Now 20160317 : vimarsana.com

KCSM Democracy Now March 17, 2016

Amy we will discuss Merrick Garlands record with terry oneill, president of the National Organization for women and Ian Millhiser, author of, injustices the Supreme Courts history of comforting the comfortable and afflicting the afflicted. Then to one of the Worst Supreme Court rulings in history. We will speak to adam cohen, author of, imbeciles the Supreme Court, american eugenics, and the sterilization of carrie buck. This was a case about a poor woman, nothing was wrong with her but being feebleminded. As a result with the endorsement of the Supreme Court, they sterilized her against her will and during that time, about 70,000 americans were sterilized. Amy judge Oliver Wendell holmes with the majority opinion to bring three generations of imbeciles are enough. All that and more, coming up. Welcome to democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. After weeks of speculation president obama has announced , his nominee to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court. Merrick garland is the chief judge for the u. S. Court of appeals for the d. C. Circuit. He is widely viewed as a moderate judge who he has received overwhelming bipartisan support in the past. He is most one of overseeing the prosecution of timothy mcveigh. Republicans have vowed to block the nomination of Merrick Garland. Senate Majority Leader Mitch Mcconnell said he will wait until a new president is in place next january before even holding a hearing on a nominee. With the death of scalia, the ninemember Supreme Court is now evenly split with four liberals and four conservative justices. Garland could tilt the court to the left for the first time in decades, though some on the left are concerned that his record on progressive issues is unclear. Well have more on the Supreme Court nomination after headlines. In news from the campaign trail, republican frontrunner donald trump has claimed in an interview with cnn that there would be right at that he is not nominated would be riots if he is not nominated to be the partys candidate at the Republican Convention this summer. Klux if we are 20 votes short or if we are 100 short and we are at 1100 and some of the else is at 500 or 400 because we are way ahead of everybody, i dont think you can say that we dont get it automatically. I think you would have riots. Amy donald trump currently has 673 delegates, the most of any republican candidate. He needs to secure 1237 to win the nomination outright. This comes as a British Research organization has ranked the possibility of a donald Trump Presidency as one of the top 10 risks facing the world. The Economist Intelligence unit ranked a Trump Presidency as just as much of a global threat as the possibility that jihadi terrorism could destabilize the global economy. In honduras, another indigenous environmental activist has been murdered less than two weeks after the assassination of famed environmental organizer Berta Caceres. 38yearold Nelson Garcia was a member of the group copinh, the Civic Council of popular and indigenous organizations of honduras, which Berta Caceres cofounded 22 years ago. He was shot in the face and killed by gunmen on tuesday in rio lindo, about 100 miles south of la esperanza, where caceres was murdered on march 3. Russia is continuing to withdraw its air force from syria, following russian president Vladimir Putins announcement monday that russia was pulling would be ending the fivemonth bombing campaign. A reuters analysis estimates that russia has already withdrawn just under half of the jets it had stationed at a base in eastern syria. The u. S. Led coalition, meanwhile, has continued to launch airstrikes against isil inside syria. This comes as the syrian kurds say they will declare a semiautonomous federal region across northern syria, as the group pushes for selfadministration under a future decentralized government. The announcement comes in the midst of u. N. Sponsored peace negotiations in geneva. The syrian kurds have been excluded from the talks. Meanwhile, in turkey, a breakaway faction of the Kurdistan Workers Party has claimed responsibility for sundays car bombing in ankara, which killed 37 people. The faction, the Kurdistan Freedom hawks, said the attack was in retaliation for Turkish Military crackdowns in the majority kurdish communities in the southeast. In nigeria, two suicide bomb attacks killed 22 people wednesday at a mosque in the northeastern borno state. The Nigerian Military says the attack was carried out by two female suicide bombers. It struck the mosque during morning prayers. No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, but borno state has been the center of attacks by boko haram in recent months. In qatar, a prominent poet has been pardoned and released from prison after serving more than three years for writing and reciting a poem inspired by the arab spring. Rashid alajami was jailed in november 2011 after a video surfaced of him reading a poem entitled tunisian jasmine, which celebrated tunisias popular uprising. He was charged with insulting qatars ruling emir and inciting to overthrow the ruling system. In brazil, president Dilma Rousseff has appointed her predecessor Luiz Inacio Lula da silva to be her chief of staff in what she says was an effort to strengthen her government. A judge then released secretly recorded phone calls between rousseff and da silva, which members of the opposition say demonstrate the appointment was instead intended to shield da silva from prosecution on corruption charges. Rousseff is currently facing impeachment proceedings. The political turmoil has sparked massive protests across brazil. In texas, an offduty suburban Dallas Police officer has been arrested on charges of murder after fatally shoot 16yearold Jose Raul Cruz sunday night. Authorities say officer ken johnson was off duty when he thought he saw a car being burglarized in the parking lot of his apartment complex. This set off a car chase, which ended with officer johnson killing cruz and shooting another teenager, edgar rodriguez, in the head. Rodriguez survived. Authorities have not said whether either of the teenagers were armed. The university of puerto rico remains shut down in a threeday student protest of austerity cuts. Student activist Gabriel Casal nazario spoke at one of the universitys blocked entrances. Students decided to shut down the university in a General Assembly we held the 15th, on tuesday, in a Historic Assembly where there were more than 4000 students and we filled more than 13 amphitheaters. We decided it is necessary to shut down the university because in the past five years, they have cut more than 542 million from our budget, and it is affecting us. Every semester there are less classes, less professors. Students have decided to take a stand. Amy meanwhile, at university of californiadavis, a student sitin outside the Chancellors Office is entering its sixth day. The students are demanding chancellor linda katehi resign over her involvement with private corporate boards, including the forprofit college devry university, the expensive textbook maker wiley and sons, and the controversial saudi school King Abdulaziz university, which has been accused of paying for affiliations with top professors in efforts to boost its global rankings. Protesting graduate student Brandon Buchanan spoke from the sitin. We, the occupiers, call for the resignation and or firing of our chancellor, who is proven time and time again from the right university to the king abdul university a while iensense textbooks that she does not make decisions based on student interest. This is not new for her. This is old hat. She has a long history dating back to 2011 with the pepper spray incident of putting her own interest over the interests of students. Amy and in new york city, human rights and Prison Reform advocate five mualimmak has been released from jail after he and fellow activist joseph jazz hayden were arrested while attempting to mediate a Police Confrontation with a homeless man on tuesday. The arrest came only moments after mualimmak and hayden left a book launch event where mualimmak had read his essay hell is a very small place, about his five years in solitary confinement. Mualimmak spoke out after being released on wednesday night. I have just been released after being incarcerated for a day or two, after a big event that we had at the foundation. The other night, we had a big book launch. When we came outside, joseph videotaping an arrest of an emotionally disturbed person. I felt committed because im on the Behavior Task force of the greater the system to basically avoid the occurrence is that a person has going through the system. Theres a special way to treat people with emotional disturbances that was not being respected that night. Arrested, i stepped into not intervene but to try to mediate the problem and was arrested, accosted, assaulted, injured to the point that im getting medical attention. We will be defending charges that are placed against us. Amy is in extended interview with five mualimmak and jazz hayden after the release from prison, go to democracynow. Org. And those are some of the headlines. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. Nermeen welcome to all of our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. After weeks of speculation, president obama has announced his nominee to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court. I selected a nominee who is widely recognized not only as one of americas sharpest legal minds, but someone who brings to his work a spirit of decency, esty, integrity, even evenhandedness and excellence. These qualities and his long commitment to Public Service have earned him the respect and admiration of leaders from both sides of the aisle. He will ultimately bring that same character to bear on the Supreme Court. An institution in which he is uniquely prepared to serve immediately. Today i am nominating chief judge Merrick Garland to join the Supreme Court. Amy republicans have vowed to block the nomination of Merrick Garland. Senate Majority Leader Mitch Mcconnell said the senate will wait until a new president is in place next january before even holding a hearing on a nominee. President obama made this nomination not with the intent of seeing the nominee confirmed, but in order to politicize it for purposes of the election. Amy president obama criticized republicans for threatening to withhold a vote. It is tempting to make this confirmation process simply an extension of our divided politics. The squabbling that is going on in the news every day. But to go down that path would be wrong. It would be a betrayal of our betrayalitions and a of the vision of our founding documents. Nermeen many analysts say obama chose garland to make it harder for republicans to outright reject him. Merrick garland is the chief judge for the u. S. Court of appeals for the d. C. Circuit. He is widely viewed as a moderate judge who has received bipartisan support in the past. He was named to his current post by bill clinton in 1997, winning confirmation from a Republicanled Senate in a 7623 vote. Prior to that, garland worked in the Justice Department where he prosecuted the Oklahoma City bombing case. At 63 years old garland is the , oldest Supreme Court nominee in four decades, a move some consider a concession by president obama. The ninemember Supreme Court is now evenly split with four liberals and four conservative justices. Garland could tilt the court to the left for the first time in decades, though some organizations have expressed concern that his record on certain issues, including abortion rights is unclear. , on wednesday, merrick spoke briefly after his legal views. Fidelity to the constitution and the law has been the cornerstone of my professional life and is the hallmark of the kind of judge i have tried to be for the past 18 years. If the senate sees fit to confirm into the position for which i have been nominated today, i promise to continue on that course. Amy for more we are joined by , two guests. Terry oneill is president of the National Organization for women. Now released a statement on wednesday calling judge garland, a real nowhere man. And were joined by Ian Millhiser, senior fellow at the center for American Progress action fund and the editor of thinkprogress justice. He is the author of the book, injustices the Supreme Courts history of comforting the comfortable and afflicting the afflicted. We welcome you both to democracy now Ian Millhiser, why dont you review his record. Talked about judge garland, what he is known for, the decisions that he has made. I mean, he is definitely to the left of center, but i think is accurate to call him a fairly centrist judge. He comes from a longstanding progressive judicial restraint that stretches back to the roosevelt administration. And what that means is that as a justice, i think that he is likely to want the courts to do much less than conservatives have wanted them to do in the last seven years over the course of obamas presidency. A big reason i think that obama probably could picked garland is because obama has spent his byidency being harassed lawsuits and he was a little more judicial restraint. What it means if garland is confirmed is the sort of aggressive judicial activism we have seen over the last seven years probably gets halted. It also means, however, some things that liberals might want from the court, theyre probably not going to get from judge garland. Amy talk about some of his key decisions. I think, since he is a judge on the d c circuit, the circuits primary role is reviewing the regulatory actions of federal agencies, and there he has been fairly deferential and generally difference to federal agencies and something that is going to be good for the party that wants to be able to govern. Two areas he is shown a strain of conservatism, he is a federal prosecutor and he does tend to be more conservative than other democratic appointees on criminal justice. Theres also a Guantanamo Bay opinion or he sided with the bush administration. It is worth the president s that were in place at the time of that opinion were not good prece dents. They were written in haste to go back to world war ii. Some people defended him saying he was just following prece dence, but he was also reversed by the Supreme Court and reversed to his left. Amy explain what he rolled. There was a question dealing with whether or not one time ok detainees were allowed to go to civilian courts or whether they had to go through the military tribunals. He joined a ruling saying the had to go through the tribunal system i believe he relied on a world war ii precedent, which was not a great decision. And in his opinion was reversed by the Supreme Court five to four in the other case. Nermeen terry oneill, your organization has called judge garland a nowhere man. What are some of the concerns that you have about judge garland . You know, amy, we dont know where judge garland stands on some key issues for women. And this actually this concern predates the nomination of judge garland. For a long time, seems the president have decided they must dominate people that we dont have much of a record on must nominate people that we dont have much of a record on. I think it is time to take a step back and look at values. President obama is right, you want a person on the Supreme Court who has impeccable credentials, who really seems to have a strong intellectual capability and a record of excellent performance, but we also need justices on the Supreme Court who will uphold the values that this country stands for equality, recognition of basic human rights, expansion of voting and Political Engagement for all of our citizens. We need to have some assurance that those values are held by the Supreme Court nominee. And this is what i was getting at when i said ok, nowhere man from the beatles, a little quote , but my point is, we dont

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