Democracy now! The war and peace report

In a Democracy Now! special broadcast, we spend the hour with one of the most famous independent filmmakers in the world: Michael Moore. For the past twenty years, Michael has been one of the most politically active, provocative and successful documentary filmmakers in the business. His films include Roger & me; Fahrenheit 9/11; Bowling for Columbine, for which he won the Academy Award; and his latest, Capitalism: A Love Story.[includes rush transcript]

It’s been a month since torrential rains triggered the worst floods in Pakistan’s recent history. Nearly 20 million people are homeless or hungry, with one million people displaced in the past week alone. The official death toll is at 1,760 but is expected to rise as survivors are threatened by diseases. Madiha Tahir, a freelance journalist in Pakistan, files a report from the Razzaqabad relief camp in Karachi. [includes rush transcript]

A new study shows the CEOs who fired the most workers during the economic recession have also taken home the highest pay. According to the Institute for Policy Studies, the CEOs of the fifty corporations responsible for the worst layoffs were paid an average $12 million—42 percent more than the average for the Standard & Poor’s 500. [includes rush transcript]

It’s back-to-school season. As millions of children around the country begin a new school year, the Obama administration is aggressively moving forward on a number of education initiatives, from expanding charter schools to implementing new national academic standards. We talk to Karen Lewis, the president of the Chicago Teachers Union, and Lois Weiner, a professor of education at New Jersey City University. [includes rush transcript]

Another oil and gas rig exploded yesterday in the Gulf of Mexico, renewing calls for the government to impose a ban on offshore oil drilling. The fire broke out on a rig operated by Mariner Energy Thursday morning about 100 miles south of the Louisiana coast. The rig was anchored in 340 feet of water, relatively shallow compared to the BP Deepwater Horizon, which exploded in April setting off the worst oil spill in US history. [includes rush transcript]

• Another Oil Rig Explodes in Gulf of Mexico
• BP: Denial of Drilling Permit Threatens Gulf Coast Claims
• Calls Grow for Offshore Drilling Ban
• US Accused of Killing 10 Afghan Civilians
• Main Afghan Bank Faces Collapse
• Slain US Army Chaplain Is First to Die in Combat Since Vietnam War
• Israeli, Palestinian Leaders Agree to Further Talks
• Settlers: "We Are Building" All Over West Bank
• Companies Passing on More Healthcare Costs to Employees
• 4 Accused of Coercing 400 Thai Workers into Forced Labor
• LA Garment Factory to Pay Workers Unpaid Overtime, Allow Monitor
• Environmentalist Sentenced to 4 Months for Accepting Facebook Friend Request

Glenn Beck organized a much-publicized "Restoring Honor" rally on Saturday in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC. Beck’s fans reportedly number in the millions, and Saturday’s rally drew nearly 100,000 supporters. We speak with Alexander Zaitchik, author of Common Nonsense: Glenn Beck and the Triumph of Ignorance. [includes rush transcript]

A federal court in California has issued a ruling that’s raising widespread alarm among advocates for civil liberties. Last month, the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit said law enforcement agents can sneak onto a person’s property, plant a GPS device on their vehicle, and track their every movements. The court’s ruling means the spying is legal in California and eight other Western states. [includes rush transcript]

New York Governor David Paterson has signed into law a measure establishing a landmark set of working standards for housekeepers, nannies and other domestic workers. With the signing of the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights, New York becomes the first state where domestic workers will be guaranteed overtime pay after a forty-hour workweek, at least one day off per week, and at least three days off with full pay per year. [includes rush transcript]

In Pakistan, torrential rains a month ago that triggered unprecedented floods have moved steadily from north to south, engulfing a fifth of the country. Seventeen million people have been affected, and some five million have lost their homes. Meanwhile, a movement to cancel Pakistan’s external debt is now underway as campaigners plan a protest in front of Pakistan’s parliament house today to call on international institutions like the IMF to cancel the country’s debt. [includes rush transcript]

• Palestinians: Obama Vows to "Stop the Settlements"
• Biden Marks Nominal End to US Combat Operations in Iraq
• Over 60 Killed in Pakistan Air Strikes
• Justice Dept. Charges Mehsud with CIA Bombing in Afghanistan
• UN Increases Estimate of DRC Rape Victims
• Evacuations Ordered in NC Ahead of Hurricane Earl
• Armed Suspect Killed After Taking Hostages at Discovery Channel
• Judge Rejects Dismissal of Suit to Overturn Drilling Ban
• BP Ad Spending Tops $93M Since Spill
• Recession Spurs Sharp Decline in Undocumented Immigration
• Wyoming Town Near Drilling Told Drinking Water Unsafe, Potentially Explosive
• WikiLeaks Founder Speaks Out Against Swedish Probe
• Lawyer: Mental Health of Alleged Leaker Was Questioned

US-brokered talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority begin today in Washington. Both sides agreed to sit down last month after the US successfully pressured Palestinian leaders to drop their precondition of an Israeli settlement freeze. On the eve of the summit, Palestinian militants killed four Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank. We speak with Ali Abunimah, co-founder of The Electronic Intifada. [includes rush transcript]

While the US invasion and occupation of Iraq over the past seven years has inflicted multiple disasters on the country, many argue that the US assault on Iraq really began twenty years ago with the US-imposed economic sanctions. Joy Gordon, author of Invisible War: The United States and the Iraq Sanctions, writes, "U.S. policymakers effectively turned a program of international governance into a legitimized act of mass slaughter." [includes rush transcript]

In his Oval Office address Tuesday night, President Obama said the US had closed or transferred hundreds of bases to the Iraqis. But many US bases remain in Iraq, as well as the massive US embassy in Baghdad, the size of eighty football fields. We play a report on US bases in Iraq by independent journalist Jacquie Soohen of Big Noise Films. [includes rush transcript]

President Obama declared an end to the combat mission in Iraq Tuesday night in the second Oval Office address of his presidency. Although tens of thousands of US troops, special operations forces and private contractors remain in Iraq, Obama announced that Operation Iraqi Freedom is now officially over. We go to Baghdad to speak with independent journalist Nir Rosen. [includes rush transcript]

• Obama Declares End to US Combat Operations in Iraq
• 4 Israeli Settlers Killed on Eve of Mideast Talks
• Study: CEOs Who Fired Most Workers Earned Highest Pay
• Bank Profits Soar, But Lending Drops
• Murkowski Concedes Alaska GOP Senate Primary
• 5 Arrested After Shots Fired at New York Mosque
• Seattle Man Charged with Hate Crime after Attack on Turban-Wearing Clerk
• Poll: 71% of New Yorkers Oppose Islamic Center in Lower Manhattan
• Deal Reached to Provide Dialysis Treatment to Undocumented Immigrants in Atlanta
• Gov't Sues Arizona Colleges for Anti-Immigrant Discrimination
• Migrant Deaths Nearing Record in Arizona
• Study: Hiring of Immigrant Workers Triggers Economic Benefits
• NY Enacts Domestic Workers Rights' Law
• Texas Appeals Court Upholds Gay Marriage, Divorce Ban
• Greenpeace Shuts Down Offshore Drilling Rig in Greenland

Rubén Salazar was one of the most well-known Latino journalists of the twentieth century and one of the few journalists killed while reporting in the United States. This Sunday marked the fortieth anniversary of his death. He was killed on August 29th, 1970, when he was struck in the head by a tear gas projectile fired by a sheriff’s deputy into an East Los Angeles bar as he was covering the massive National Chicano Moratorium Against the Vietnam War, a massive antiwar march that drew some 30,000 people to LA’s Eastside. For forty years, speculation and controversy have swirled around what happened. We remember the life and legacy of Salazar and the Chicano Moratorium. [includes rush transcript]

Rwanda is facing explosive allegations from the United Nations of committing war crimes and possibly even genocide in the Democratic Republic of Congo. A leaked report from the UN high commissioner for human rights says that after the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, Tutsi-led Rwandan troops and their rebel allies killed tens of thousands of members of the Hutu ethnic group inside the Congo. [includes rush transcript]

• Obama to Declare End to Combat Operations in Iraq
• UN: Iraq Still Faces Humanitarian Crisis
• Gibbs: US Is Increasing Fight Against al-Qaeda in Africa and Southeast Asia
• Obama Administration Sued over Plan to Assassinate US Citizens
• 19 US Troops Killed Since Saturday in Afghanistan
• Anti-Mosque Rhetoric in US Reportedly Boosts Taliban Recruitment
• Candlelight Vigil in Tennessee Condemns Arson at Mosque Site
• Predator Drones to Begin Patrolling Texas-Mexico Border
• Suspected Drug Lord Captured in Mexico
• Obama Urges Senate GOP to Pass $30 Billion Jobs Bill
• One in Six Americans Now Enrolled in Anti-Poverty Programs
• Mice, Maggots, Manure Found at Factory Egg Farms Linked to Salmonella Outbreak
• Four African Union Troops Killed in Somalia

We go to New Orleans to speak with poet and performer Sunni Patterson. She’s from the Lower Ninth Ward, but like thousands of the city’s residents has been forced to live outside and is now based in Houston, Texas. [includes rush transcript]