09/11/12 09/11/12 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] >> from pacifica, this is "democracy now!" >> a lot of people don't realize, they think the ctu is negotiating for a higher raise. they do not realize there also negotiating for more class is an art, music. some schools do not even have a library. they're advocating for that and for nurses, counselors. >> the chicago teacher strike in its second day. on monday, over 10,000 teachers marched to mayor rahm emanuel's office protesting his educational policies. first, a man some have described as america's political prisoner no. 1. >> i was brought to trial one month before the democratic primary by a u.s. attorney in the middle district of alabama

on charges the new york times said have never been a crime in america. >> we will speak with alabama's former democratic governor don siegelman as he reports to prison today after losing an appeal of a controversial conflict -- controversial conviction that many have compared to a political witch hunt. as a nation marks the 11th anniversary of the september 11 attacks, we will speak with pulitzer prize-winning journalist chris hedges. >> we are spiraling downward in this new world of global neil feudalism, this world of masters and serfs as more and more people wake up, they're going to have to implement the harsher measures of control that we see be made into law. >> chris hedges on "days of destruction, days of revolt." all of that and more coming up. this is "democracy now!," democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman.

thousands of teachers, parents, students marched in the streets of chicago monday, the opening day of the city's first public school strike in a quarter- century. almost 30,000 people -- teachers and support staff have walked out. the teachers' union called the strike sunday night after months of negotiations failed to resolve demands for pay raises, better classroom conditions, job security, and evaluations. we'll have more from chicago later in the broadcast. events are being held across the country today to mark the 11th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. on the eve of this anniversary, federal officials announced first responders and other survivors exposed to toxic compounds from the wreckage at ground zero may now be entitled to free cancer treatment for the first time. the u.s. government has added about 50 types of cancer to its list of illnesses covered under

the zadroga act. the law, signed by president obama last year, was named after new york police detective james zadroga, who died in 2006 of respiratory illness stemming from his work at the world trade center site. zadroga was reported to be the first nypd officer to die from inhaling toxic dust at ground zero. so far, at least 1000 deaths have been tied to illnesses stemming from the 9/11 attacks. newly disclosed documents from before 9/11 have provided further evidence the bush administration ignored repeated warnings about osama bin laden's plans to attack the united states. writing in "the new york times," journalist and author kurt eichenwald reports the bush administration dismissed a number of warnings of an al qaeda attack in u.s. beginning in the spring of 2001, instead focusing on saddam hussein. in one assessment, eichenwald writes --

some counterterrorism officials were so dismayed with the administration's response that they discussed seeking a transfer so that others would be blamed when the attack on the u.s. eventually took place. the suggestion was dismissed because there would not be enough time to train replacements. the u.s. military has disclosed a guantanamo prisoner died over the weekend in his cell. the victim's identity has not been released, but he is said to have taken part in a hunger strike in the prison earlier this year. he is believed to be the ninth foreign prisoner to die at guantanamo since the u.s. began jailing foreigners there in 2002. several prisoners have taken their own lives. the u.n.'s top human rights official has renewed pleas for both sides of the conflict in syria to stop what could amount to war crimes or crimes against humanity. navi pillay, the u.n. high commissioner for human rights, issued the appeal before the

u.n. human rights council in geneva. >> the use of heavy weapons by the government and the shelling of populated areas has resulted in high numbers of civilian casualties, mass displacement of civilians inside and outside the country, and a devastating humanitarian crisis. i am concerned that they may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity. i am equally concerned about violations by anti-government forces, including murder, extrajudicial executions and torture, as well as the recently increased use of improvised explosive devices. >> violence continued across syria on monday with around 100 people reportedly killed, most of them civilians. unverified video shows what appear to be bodies of 20 blindfolded syrian soldiers

after they were executed in aleppo. speaking in cairo on monday, the new u.n. arab league envoy to syria, lakhdar brahimi, said he will be making his first visit tohe said expectations of progrs should be kept to a minimum. >> there are no [indiscernible] and our approach is based on the fact we're looking only to the interests of the people of syria, and we will try to help the people of syria and nobody else. >> israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu is claiming to be in talks with u.s. on setting a red line for iran -- iran's bigger program that would trigger a military attack if crossed. netanyahu made the disclosure in an interview with canada's cbc news. >> we're discussing this right

now with the u.s. >> what is it in terms of drawing that line, what are you hoping from the u.s.? >> i think it is not just the sanctions or the steps that could be enhanced to put pressure on iran, but a clear delineation of the line which iran cannot cross in its pursuit of the development of nuclear weapons capability. i think if you publish there is a chance they might pause and think before they cross that line. >> asked about netanyahu's comments in washington, state department's spokesperson victoria nuland refused to confirm that talks are being held on red lines. >> we are absolutely firm about the president's commitment here, but it is not useful to be parsing it, to be setting deadlines one way or the other, red lines. it is most important state intensely focused on the pressure on iran, the

opportunity for iran to fix this situation to the diplomacy we have offered, and consultations with israel and the other regional states as we are doing. >> clashes broke out in the west bank on monday following a week of protests against the palestinian authority and the israeli occupation. thousands of palestinians have taken to the streets to denounce austerity measures imposed by the croupier in the face of a shortfall of international donations and of ongoing israeli restrictions. a number of palestinian taxi and truck drivers went on strike and blocked roads in a protest against a rise in fuel prices. in kuwait, thousands of people protested in front of the country's parliament monday to call for the election of a prime minister from outside the ruling al-sabah family into a protest against a possible amendment up electoral laws. among those for dissipating were lawmakers from the opposition

majority parliament elected earlier this year before a court nullified the vote and reinstated the pro-monarchy predecessor. two ohio election officials fired for tried to extend early voting have filed a federal lawsuit seeking reinstatement of their jobs. the two officials, dennis lieberman and thomas ritchie, were dismissed last month for moving to extend early voting after ohio secretary of state jon husted, a republican, announced all counties would follow uniform hours for early voting on weekdays. but since this order only applied during the week, ritchie and lieberman moved to expand voting times on the weekend. critics have said the state's uneven hours benefit white republicans, while disenfranchising people of color. president obama won montgomery county in 2008. a federal judge struck down ohio's effort to prevent early voting the weekend before the election late last month, but ohio has filed an appeal. >> campaigning in ohio on monday, republican nominee mitt

romney continue to push his vow to revive the u.s. economy if elected. >> the place in this economy will come back, we're going to start creating jobs again. you will see as have a balanced budget. that is actually within the realm of reality. we will get americans to work with higher wages again. you will be confident in your child's future is brighter, even then in the past. america does not have to have a long face we have right now under this president. >> two antiwar protesters have been found guilty of trespassing for entering a missouri air force base with a letter describing the opposition to the u.s. drone program. the defendants were among a number of activists who took part in a demonstration at the blattman air force base last april. the base is one of several homes of u.s. military aerial drone program overseas. the longtime environmental activist larry gibson has died

at the age of 66. gibson spent decades advocating against the destructive practice of mountaintop removal coal mining. at one point, walking across west virginia to educate his fellow residents. he died while working in west virginia, his birthplace, in an area he spent years trying to protect. we will talk more about him with journalist chris hedges later in the broadcast. yemen is claiming to have killed a militant leader believed to be the second in command of al qaeda. the yemeni government says he and six other militants were killed monday in a military operation in eastern yemen. those are some of the headlines. this is "democracy now!," democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. we begin our show with the man who the american trial lawyer magazine calls america's political prisoner no. 1. that's don siegelman, the former governor of alabama who returns

to federal prison today to resume his six and a half year sentence. he was convicted on bribery charges stemming from his appointment of a campaign donor to a non paying government board. however, his supporters say his only crime was belonging to the democratic party and a stay with the republican majority. his supporters say he was a target of the political wit hunt, in part orchestrated by former bush administration deputy karl rove. they claim the federal prosecutors and presiding judge decided to destroy siegelman's career. siegelman was once touted as a possible democratic presidential caidate. in alabama, he served in four of the state's top elected offices -- governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, and secretary of state. siegman's supporters already wiinrietyushepeerri

sa espeop deheve thsea aldaever rrica o/1rk ey that iy te ed stes. ve wchedhe oma adnitin la fr yearfurtdeil i wod are ama s caied t famore eiosslts agaicil lertindven orge. bh, what fu t reathaas

rpus, whhakesegalnd r conitn warrtless wiretap use litaor ao justif e assassinatiori, thusof the espionagectix tis to sh dow tllowe ithis cntry, sentlly eing any ki seous veate journalism to government workers and nonasce, and ofours the tional defense authorizn act. we see the presidever this ise. thes a to a great injunction issu ande're waiting to s whether that wbeme permanent - it has been anted tharof ts book, and oligarchic state. decriminalizedissent becau

they know veryl what is coming. as a reduced roughly two-thds of ts country to subsistence level. >> y tk about sacrifice zoand heroes, like one in our news headlines today, larry gibson of west virginia. he just dd. >> and we open thehapter on west virginia with larry who saveis boyhoodome, the tops of mountains, hundredsf acres around him, devastated in mountaintop removal process by which to blow the top 4 feet of of mountains, poison the air, the water, e soil. i mean, nothing can be reclaimed. joe and i flew over the mountains hundreds of thousands of acr which were gone and will never come ba. we went to the sacrifice zones to expose what unfeered,

unregulated -- athis etiology of dealing befo the markplace does. we wrote it off the ground for that reason. you cannot argue with it. what it does is essentially stroy human beings. is an act of violence. within all of these pockets, within camden, west virginia, pine rge, south dakota where we open the book with pine ridge because that is where it began. >> explained. >> it is a reservati in south dakota. the average life expectancy for a man is 48. at any one time, 60% of the residents have electricity or running wat, 80% all as a rate. you break these people. you create a culture of dependency. unix self-sufficiency and possible. people and as the size themselves.

at pe ridge, you have these heroic figures. all sorts of peopleho rise up like larry gibson and fight back. if you ask larry about the chances of saving t appalachian mntains, he knew the same way that to the bonds and all sorts ofctivists we interviewed in west virginia, yet they fought backnyway, utterly heroic. amazing figures. i found often people essentially sustain themselv through faith anin pine ridge, that was the traditional sweat lodges, sun nces, turning to their traditions but it is incumbent upon us to look at these sacrifice zones to understand what happens when there are no restraints, no impediments on corporate capitalism because they're doing this globally. >> imokolee workers.

>> and have covered that well. you have repeated conditions in essence that are slavery. these are the perfect workers in the eyes of the corporate state. they have no benefits, they gather in darkness every day of 4:00 in the morning hoping for work, hoping to pick produce. it is companies like walmart that determine the prices. they squeezed the growers. profits get less and less, and they take it out on workers. we interviewed a worker that was chained in a truck at night, forced to defecate with the other workers in a corner of the truck for over two years. that is not accidental. >> these are undocumented workers could >> largely undocumented. they are paid by the day. they cannot afford the $50 a

week. they're charged by trailer park owners and have to live near the collection points, 20 mattresses and a dilapidated trailers filled with holes in the floorboard and rats, then sleep under mango trees. that is the awful logic of where we are headed. you see the forces of economic power, corporate power, telling workers in this country they have to be competitive in a global marketplace. that means being combated with prison labor in china or sweat shop workers and bangladesh. we saw the great labor advocate mr. islam being murdered by opponents of any kind of labor organizing they were 22 cents an hour, $37 a month. that is the world we are headed for. it comes right back to the

chicago strike because none of the established systems, formal systems, including the two political parties, will help us. that was the importance of the occupy movement. it stated the fact we're on our own now could >> your vote you started before -- he started your book before occupy, "days of destruction, days of revolt." >> yes they can modify everything human beings are commodities, the natural world is a commodity, but they exploit until exhaustion or collapse and we see that with the melting of the summer arctic ice. what is the response of our corporate overlords, to raise thosraid those waters. it makes "moby dick was >> the most pressing book an american literature.

it is utterly suicidal. these were all ahabs. i think there was a quote that says "by means and methods are same, i met that is mad." if we do not rest is back from corporate critic tom, there will quite literally kill off the ecosystem and which the human species depends for life and force all of us in this downward race to the bottom so that the conditions of workers in florida began replicating the conditions of workers everywhere. >> "new york times" reporter to getting arrested outside one of the world leading financial institutions here in new york? >> i guess that is called the upward trajectory of my career. [laughter] >> we will leave it at that. thank you for being with us, chris hedges, wrote "days of destruction, days of revolt."

that does it for our show. democracy now! is looking for feedback from people who appreciate the closed captioning. e-mail your comments to outreach@democracynow.org or mail them to democracy now! p.o. box 693 new york, new york 10013. [captioning made possible by democracy now!] continuesmedia tour will be at the philadelphia free library, 1901 vine street. we mcconomy auditorium at carnegie mellon university. cleveland at visible voice books, then at 8 pm in oberlin ohio, the first church, 106 north main street. on saturday we'll be on the kenyon college campus in gambier, ohio at noon, then at 3 pm in columbus, ohio at the first unitarian universal church, and then at 7 pm at ohio university in athens, at the baker student center. and on sunday at 1 pm we will be in cincinnati, at the crosley telecommunications center. the tour will continue into illinois, michigan, wisconsin, and minnesota, then back to washington dc and virginia. tavis: good evening. from los angeles, i am

tavis: good evening.