Home > Programs
> Democracy
Now! > Tues., Feb. 8, 2005
Democracy Now!
ATTN: ALL STATIONS
From: Democracy Now!
Re: Rundown 2-8-05
PRSS Channel: A67.7
Sharon & Abbas Hold Summit & Call For End of Violence
Bush's New $2.5 Trillion Budget Boosts Pentagon Spending,
Slashes Domestic Programs
Copyright Issues Block Broadcast of Award-Winning Civil Rights
Documentary "Eyes on the Prize"
Sharon & Abbas Hold Summit & Call For End
of Violence
In the first Israeli-Palestinian summit in four years, Israeli
Prime Minister Gen. Ariel Sharon and Palestinian leader Mahmoud
Abbas verbally agreed today to end four years of fighting.
Since the intifada began in September 2000, about 3,600 Palestinians
and 1,050 Israelis have been killed in fighting. [includes
rush
transcript]
Israeli and Palestinian leaders are expected to announce
a cease-fire deal today to end more than four years of bloodshed
which has claimed over 4,000 lives.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian leader
Mahmoud Abbas are expected to declare a truce at a summit
in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh today. The meeting
is the highest-level talks between the two sides since 2000.
Abbas is expected to announce the end of the intifada and
Sharon will vow to refrain from any military action in the
occupied territories if the ceasefire is not broken. The talks
are also being attended by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak
and Jordan's King Abdullah.
Sharon's spokesman Raanan Gissin said each side would make
a separate declaration of an end to violence rather than signing
a cease-fire agreement. Chief Palestinian negotiator, Saeb
Erekat, told Reuters he anticipated the establishment of joint
committees to oversee the release of Palestinian prisoners
from Israeli jails and the phased withdrawal of Israeli forces
from Palestinian areas of the West Bank.
US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice met with Abbas yesterday
in Ramallah. She has appointed an army general as "security
coordinator" to supervise reform of Palestinian security
forces. The general, William Ward, is former commander of
the Nato stabilization force in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and
has served in Egypt as military liaison officer.
Both Abbas and Sharon have accepted invitations to make separate
visits to Washington in the spring. To talk about the cease-fire
deal, we are joined by two guests with different perspectives:
Hussein Ibish joins us in our DC studio. He is a Senior Fellow
at the American Task Force on Palestine and on the line from
Chicago we are joined by Ali Abunimah, founder of the Electronic
Intifada.
Bush's New $2.5 Trillion Budget Boosts Pentagon Spending,
Slashes Domestic Programs
President Bush sent Congress a federal budget yesterday
that some say reads like a hit list against almost every social
program paid for by US taxpayers. It calls for the elimination
of some 150 government programs. One out of every three of
the targeted programs concerns education. [includes rush
transcript]
Bush's plan would slash aid to cities by one-third, eliminate
health insurance for thousands of low-income families, reduce
veterans' medical benefits, cut funding for city cops and
county sheriffs, wipe out child care subsidies for 300,000
families, trim funding for clean water and soil conservation
and shutter dozens of programs for preschool children and
at-risk youth. The budget also targets public housing, Medicaid
and farmers.
In addition Bush is proposing to cut the budget of the Environmental
Protection Agency by $450 million; to cut $100 million from
a Bureau of Indian Affairs program that helps build schools
and to cut $200 million for home-heating aid for the poor.
But Bush isn't cutting back on all federal programs. The
budget calls for a $19 billion increase in Pentagon spending.
At a news conference in Washington, Bush spoke to reporters
about his budget plan.
- President Bush, discussing his proposed budget on Feb.
7, 2005
Copyright Issues Block Broadcast of Award-Winning
Civil Rights Documentary "Eyes on the Prize"
"This is analogous to stopping the circulation of all
the books about Martin Luther King, stopping the circulation
of all the books about Malcolm X," said Lawrence Guyot,
a prominent civil rights leader with the Mississippi Freedom
Democratic Party. "I would call upon everyone who has
access to 'Eyes on the Prize' to openly violate any and all
laws regarding its showing." We talk to Guyot about a
national grassroots effort to screen "Eyes on the Prize"
today. [includes rush
transcript]
In cities across the country today, people will gather for
what is being called a nationwide screening of Eyes on the
Prize, the famed documentary on the civil rights movement.
The campaign is being organized by a music activist group
called Downhill Battle
and it is a response to copyright laws that have kept the
series off of TV and out of print for a decade. The screening
is called "Eyes
on the Screen."
"Eyes on the Prize" is made up of news footage,
photographs, songs and lyrics from the Civil Rights Movement
that are tangled up in a web of licensing restrictions. Many
of these licenses had expired by 1995 and the film's production
company, Blackside, could not afford the exorbitant costs
of renewing them. "Eyes on the Prize" has been unavailable
to the public ever since.
The documentary's owners are trying to get it back in circulation,
but are facing some very restrictive laws. The 14-part film
was last shown in 1992. The film won six Emmys, and the segment
"Bridge to Freedom 1965" was nominated for an Academy
Award for best feature documentary.
A touching and intimate scene in the film shows staff members
singing "Happy Birthday" to Martin Luther King Jr.
on his 39th, and last, birthday. But copyright laws protect
the song, as well as much of the television footage and photos
used.
- Lawrence Guyot, veteran civil rights activist and a former
Member of SNCC, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.
- Rick Prelinger, professional archivist who has been working
to increase public access to copyrighted materials.
For a copy of today’s program, call 1 (800) 881 2359.
Our website is www.democracynow.org.
Our email address is mail@democracynow.org.
Democracy Now! is produced by Mike Burke, Sharif Abdel Kouddous,
Ana Nogueira, Elizabeth Press, Jeremy Scahill and Parvez Sharma.
Mike Di Filippo is our engineer.
Thanks also to Uri Galed, Angela Alston, Orlando Richards,
Simba Russeau, Johnny Sender, Rich Kim, Joe Murgio, John Randolph,
Chris Zucker, Karen Ranucci, Denis Moynihan, Eric Rweyemamu,
Jenny Filipazzo and Isis Phillips.
|
Listen
to the show
Help
whole
show
