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Ex-Haitian PM Yvon Neptune Near Death
The Christian Right and the Rising Power of the Evangelical
Political Movement
Louisville Landscape: Politics, Race and Police Brutality
Ex-Haitian PM Yvon Neptune Near Death
We get an update on the condition of jailed former Haitian
Prime Minister Yvon Neptune who has been on a hunger strike
for 18 days and is reportedly near death. We go to Haiti to
speak with human rights activist Patrick Elie who served as
Haiti's Drug Czar and Undersecretary of State for Defense
under Jean Bertrand Aristide and we speak with lawyer Brian
Concannon.
Yvone Neptune - the former prime minister of Haiti - is
critically ill and reportedly near death after 18 days of
a hunger strike.
Neptune has been in jail for the past 10 months and has yet
to see a judge in his case. The US-backed interim Haitian
government recently charged him with having a role in a series
of political killings in the town of St. Marc in February
2004.
Earlier this week, the government offered to take Neptune
to the neighboring Dominican Republic for medical care, but
he refused and demanded he first be released and the charges
dropped.
Neptune's continued imprisonment has been condemned around
the world. The chief of the Haiti U.N. mission's human rights
division Thierry Fagart told reporters "The fundamental
rights, according to national and international standards,
have not been respected in the case of Mr. Neptune."
In Washington on Wednesday, the head of the Organization
of American States called for a joint Haitian-international
commission to try to quickly resolve the impasse over Neptune's
imprisonment.
- Patrick Elie, human rights activist in Haiti. Under the
first government of Jean Bertrand Aristide, he served as
Haiti's Drug Czar and Undersecretary of State for Defense.
He was one of the key figures in dismantling the Haitian
military. He has recently met with Yvon Neptune.
- Brian Concannon, director of the Institute
for Justice and Democracy in Haiti. Last month - along
with law students at the University of California and Haitian
attorneys - he helped file a petition with the Inter-American
Commission on Human Rights on behalf of Haiti's former Prime
Minister Yvon Neptune.
The Christian Right and the Rising Power of the Evangelical
Political Movement
We take a look at the rising power of the evangelical political
movement in this country with journalist and author Chris
Hedges and the Rev. Joseph Phelps, who led a counter-service
to last month's "Justice Sunday: Stopping the Filibuster
Against People of Faith." [includes rush
transcript]
Welcome to Democracy Now, we are broadcasting from Louisville,
Kentucky on our Unembed the Media Tour. Last month, an event
called "Justice Sunday: Stopping the Filibuster Against
People of Faith" took place at a Baptist church just
east of Louisville. The event was organized by Christian Conservatives
and it was simultaneously broadcast to churches around the
country, as well as to 61 million households.
Justice Sunday featured some of America's most prominent
evangelical leaders who lambasted the Democrats and accused
them of blocking conservative Bush nominees for federal judicial
posts. At the event they accused Democrats of an anti-religious
bigotry comparable to racial bias.
Senate Majority leader Bill Frist delivered a taped speech
at the event in a move many say inappropriately brought religion
into a political debate. While Frist didn't mention religion
in his speech, others who were headlining the event did.
To talk about the religious right in this country we are
joined by two guests.
- Chris Hedges, journalist and author. He was a foreign
correspondent for The New York Times and is currently a
senior fellow at the Nation Institute. He is author of "War
Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning" and "Losing
Moses on the Freeway." He has a master's degree in
theology from Harvard University.
Louisville Landscape: Politics, Race and Police Brutality
We take a look at local Louisville politics and the political
landscape of Kentucky with professor Ricky Jones, a political
science specialist in the department of Pan-African Studies
at the University of Louisville.
- Ricky Jones, he is Associate Professor, Chair, and Political
Science specialist in the Department of Pan-African
Studies at the University of Louisville. His research
and social and community advocacy has centered on issues
of identity, politics, education, culture, and consciousness.
Jones is also a columnist for Louisville's alternative weekly,
the Louisville Eccentric Observer and his column, the Message
to the People, can be read monthly at www.leoweekly.com.
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.
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