Uncovering America

I have forbid myself not to get too excited with the CNN SIU editions, they are just recycling material, but this is really promising. I have seen the work of Shola Lynch and it is excellent! Her documentary on Shirley Chisholm is must see TV for those of you interested in women rights and minority politics.

Discrimination and intolerance is wide spread throughout the USA. Sad, but real. The political correctness obsession is just isolating individual issues and not addressing the core: the need for equality for ALL.

Lets see what this series and programing schedule leads us, and if it indeeds makes any difference.

Yearlong Undertaking Launches Feb. 17 across All Platforms with Series of Reports about Black Americans

CNN kicks off a provocative series of reports on people and issues often ignored by mainstream media, when it launches its “Uncovering America” project later this month. The yearlong effort – encompassing newscasts, prime-time programs and documentaries on CNN/U.S. and Headline News, as well as extensive features on CNN.com – will offer gripping in-depth reports on conflicts and controversies affecting minority groups including African-Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian-Americans and gays.

“Uncovering America” launches on Saturday, Feb. 17, with “MLK: Words That Changed a Nation,” a CNN: Special Investigations Unit hour in which Soledad O’Brien is granted rare access to the collection of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s personal journals, speeches and other private writings – which shed new light on the people and the passions behind the Civil Rights movement. A special screening of the documentary on Tuesday, Feb. 13, at Morehouse College in Atlanta will include Kyra Phillips moderating a panel discussion about the civil rights movement.

The effort unfolds during the ensuing week with:

· A special five-part series on Anderson Cooper 360° titled “Incarcerated in America.” Produced by Peabody Award-winning filmmaker Shola Lynch, the series looks at the shocking impact of crime and punishment on inner-city communities. Anderson Cooper 360° airs each weekday from 10 p.m. to midnight (ET);

Online, CNN.com offers a wide-ranging look at the state of equality today with its special section, “Uncovering America: The Road to Equality,” available at www.CNN.com/roadtoequality. “The Road to Equality” features video and written commentaries to examine the most pressing needs in addressing equality in this country as well as graphic elements to reveal the demographic divides across the nation.

CNN.com extends an invitation to users to send in their thoughts in video and text about equality, racism and related topics through CNN Exchange, CNN.com’s destination for user-generated content. Submission forms are available at www.CNN.com/exchange.

No Rights

By MATT APUZZO, Associated Press Writer
1 minute ago


WASHINGTON - The Bush administration said Monday that Guantanamo Bay prisoners have no right to challenge their detentions in civilian courts and that lawsuits by hundreds of detainees should be dismissed.

In court documents filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, the Justice Department defended the military's authority to arrest people overseas and detain them indefinitely without access to courts.

It's the first time that argument has been spelled out since President Bush signed a law last month setting up military commissions for the thousands of foreigners being held in U.S. prisons abroad.

Bush hailed the law as a crucial tool in the war on terrorism and said it would allow prosecution of several high-level terror suspects.

Human rights groups and attorneys for the detainees say the law is unconstitutional. Prisoners normally have the right to challenge their imprisonment.

The Justice Department said Monday that the detainees have no constitutional rights. Giving military detainees access to civilian courts "would severely impair the military's ability to defend this country," government attorneys wrote.

"Congress could have simply withdrawn jurisdiction over these matters and left the decision of whether to detain enemy aliens held abroad to the military," the Justice Department wrote.

Instead, the new military commission structure established "unprecedented" levels of review for detainees, the attorneys wrote.
****

I love watching my government trample other people's human rights.

According to the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights:

Article 3
Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.

Article 5
No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

Article 6
Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law.

Article 9
No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.

Article 10
Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him.

Article 11
Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defence.

No rights, eh?

(Go here for the rest of the UN's Declaration.)