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Troops Home Fast: Nationwide Hunger Strikes Protest Iraq
War
Veteran Journalist Robert Scheer on Playing President: My
Close Encounters with Nixon, Carter, Bush I, Reagan and Clinton-
and How They Did Not Prepare Me for George W. Bush
Troops Home Fast: Nationwide Hunger Strikes Protest
Iraq War
Thousands of protestors gathered across the nation over
the July 4th holiday to protest the Iraq war. Three thousand
people around the world are fasting or have done so for at
least one day this past week as part of a national "Troops
Home Fast" to end the Iraq war. We speak with CodePink
founder, Medea Benjamin. [includes rush
transcript]
We begin by looking at the efforts to end the war in Iraq.
A recent Gallup poll found that roughly 2 in 3 Americans want
the U.S to withdraw troops from Iraq, with 31 percent wanting
this to start immediately.
Last week, over the July 4th holiday, thousands of protestors
gathered across the nation to protest the war. And 3,000 people
around the world are fasting or have done so for at least
one day this past week as part of a national "Troops
Home Fast" to end the Iraq war. The anti-war organization
Code Pink launched the fast last weekend and participants
include Cindy Sheehan, Susan Sarandon, Sean Penn Dick Gregory,
Willie Nelson, Bonnie Raitt, Alice Walker and Danny Glover.
The fasters plan to stay in front of the White House every
day until August 14th, when they move the hunger strike next
to President Bush's vacation ranch in Crawford, Texas.
- Medea Benjamin, longtime peace activist and founder of
Code Pink.
Veteran Journalist Robert Scheer on Playing President:
My Close Encounters with Nixon, Carter, Bush I, Reagan and
Clinton- and How They Did Not Prepare Me for George W. Bush
We speak with veteran journalist and author Robert Scheer
about his new book, "Playing President: My Close Encounters
with Nixon, Carter, Bush I, Reagan and Clinton- and How They
Did Not Prepare Me for George W. Bush."
The Vietnam, War, North Korea, The Cold War and Presidential
Power. These are just a few of the topics that veteran journalist
Robert Scheer has reported on in his long career. From 1964
to 1969 he was Vietnam correspondent, and editor in chief
of Ramparts magazine. From 1976 to 1993 he served as a national
correspondent for the Los Angeles Times and in 1993 Scheer
launched a nationally syndicated column based at the LA Times
where he was named a contributing editor.
Robert Scheer's column ran weekly for 12 years until November
of last year when he was fired. Scheer said publicly that
he believed his firing was due to ideological reasons and
his steady criticism of the Bush administration At the time,
Scheer wrote on the Huffington
Post blog that "The publisher Jeff Johnson, who has
offered not a word of explanation to me, has privately told
people that he hated every word that I wrote. I assume that
mostly refers to my exposing the lies used by President Bush
to justify the invasion of Iraq. Fortunately sixty percent
of Americans now get the point but only after tens of thousand
of Americans and Iraqis have been killed and maimed as the
carnage spirals out of control. My only regret is that my
pen was not sharper and my words tougher."
Scheer's column is now based at the San Francisco Chronicle.
He also recently launched the political blog, "Truthdig.com."
His latest book is called "Playing President: "My
Close Encounters with Nixon, Carter, Bush I and Clinton--and
How They Did Not Prepare Me for George W. Bush."
- Robert Scheer, journalist and author of several books.
His latest is titled "Playing President: My Close Encounters
with Nixon, Carter, Bush I, Reagan and Clinton- and How
They Did Not Prepare Me for George W. Bush."
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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