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Award-winning Investigative Journalist Robert Parry (1949-2018)

Award-winning investigative journalist and founder/editor of ConsortiumNews.com, Robert Parry has passed away. His ground-breaking work uncovering Reagan-era dirty wars in Central America and many other illegal and immoral policies conducted by successive administrations and U.S. intelligence agencies, stands as an inspiration to all in journalists working in the public interest.

Robert had been a regular guest on our Between The Lines and Counterpoint radio shows -- and many other progressive outlets across the U.S. over four decades.

His penetrating analysis of U.S. foreign policy and international conflicts will be sorely missed, and not easily replaced. His son Nat Parry writes a tribute to his father: Robert Parry’s Legacy and the Future of Consortiumnews.



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The Resistance Starts Now!

Between The Lines' coverage and resource compilation of the Resistance Movement



SPECIAL REPORT: "The Resistance - Women's March 2018 - Hartford, Connecticut" Jan. 20, 2018

Selected speeches from the Women's March in Hartford, Connecticut 2018, recorded and produced by Scott Harris





SPECIAL REPORT: "No Fracking Waste in CT!" Jan. 14, 2018



SPECIAL REPORT: "Resistance Round Table: The Unraveling Continues..." Jan. 13, 2018





SPECIAL REPORT: "Capitalism to the ash heap?" Richard Wolff, Jan. 2, 2018




SPECIAL REPORT: Maryn McKenna, author of "Big Chicken", Dec. 7, 2017






SPECIAL REPORT: Nina Turner's address, Working Families Party Awards Banquet, Dec. 14, 2017



SPECIAL REPORT: Mic Check, Dec. 12, 2017



SPECIAL REPORT: Resistance Roundtable, Dec. 9, 2017




SPECIAL REPORT: On Tyranny - one year later, Nov. 28, 2017



SPECIAL REPORT: Mic Check, Nov. 12, 2017



SPECIAL REPORT: Resistance Roundtable, Nov. 11, 2017



SPECIAL REPORT: Rainy Day Radio, Nov. 7, 2017



SPECIAL REPORT: Rainy Day Radio, Nov. 7, 2017




SPECIAL REPORT: Resisting U.S. JeJu Island military base in South Korea, Oct. 24, 2017




SPECIAL REPORT: John Allen, Out in New Haven




2017 Gandhi Peace Awards

Promoting Enduring Peace presented its Gandhi Peace Award jointly to renowned consumer advocate Ralph Nader and BDS founder Omar Barghouti on April 23, 2017.



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THANK YOU TO EVERYONE...

who helped make our 25th anniversary with Jeremy Scahill a success!

For those who missed the event, or were there and really wanted to fully absorb its import, here it is in video

Jeremy Scahill keynote speech, part 1 from PROUDEYEMEDIA on Vimeo.

Jeremy Scahill keynote speech, part 2 from PROUDEYEMEDIA on Vimeo.


Between The Lines on Stitcher

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Between The Lines Presentation at the Left Forum 2016

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"How Do We Build A Mass Movement to Reverse Runaway Inequality?" with Les Leopold, author of "Runaway Inequality: An Activist's Guide to Economic Justice,"May 22, 2016, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, The City University of New York, 860 11th Ave. (Between 58th and 59th), New York City. Between The Lines' Scott Harris and Richard Hill moderated this workshop. Listen to the audio/slideshows and more from this workshop.





Listen to audio of the plenary sessions from the weekend.



JEREMY SCAHILL: Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker "Dirty Wars"

Listen to the full interview (30:33) with Jeremy Scahill, an award-winning investigative journalist with the Nation Magazine, correspondent for Democracy Now! and author of the bestselling book, "Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army," about America's outsourcing of its military. In an exclusive interview with Counterpoint's Scott Harris on Sept. 16, 2013, Scahill talks about his latest book, "Dirty Wars, The World is a Battlefield," also made into a documentary film under the same title, and was nominated Dec. 5, 2013 for an Academy Award in the Best Documentary Feature category.

Listen to Scott Harris Live on WPKN Radio

Between The Lines' Executive Producer Scott Harris hosts a live, weekly talk show, Counterpoint, from which some of Between The Lines' interviews are excerpted. Listen every Monday evening from 8 to 10 p.m. EDT at www.WPKN.org (Follows the 5-7 minute White Rose Calendar.)

Counterpoint in its entirety is archived after midnight ET Monday nights, and is available for at least a year following broadcast in WPKN Radio's Archives.

You can also listen to full unedited interview segments from Counterpoint, which are generally available some time the day following broadcast.

Subscribe to Counterpoint bulletins via our subscriptions page.


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California Ballot Question Asks Voters to Support Overturning SCOTUS Citizens United Decision

Posted July 23, 2014

MP3 Interview with Michele Sutter, chairperson of Money Out, Voters In and Yes on Prop. 49, conducted by Melinda Tuhus

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California voters will get a chance to weigh in on Proposition 49, a referendum question with national consequences this November. The ballot question calls for overturning Supreme Court decisions Citizens United and McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission, which allowed almost unlimited and unaccountable money to flow into political campaigns. The California referendum effort is being spearheaded by the group Money Out, Voters In.

The ballot question asks, "Shall the Congress of the United States propose, and the California Legislature ratify, an amendment or amendments to the United States Constitution to overturn Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission [(2010) 558 U.S. 310,] and other applicable judicial precedents, to allow the full regulation or limitation of campaign contributions and spending, to ensure that all citizens, regardless of wealth, may express their views to one another, and to make clear that the rights protected by the United States Constitution are the rights of natural persons only?"

Between The Lines' Melinda Tuhus spoke with Michele Sutter, who spearheaded the campaign through Money Out, Voters In or MOVI, and is now chairperson of Yes on Prop 49. Here, she explains why her group pursued the ballot question option and how other states and municipalities are also working to overturn these Supreme Court decisions on campaign finance.

MICHELE SUTTER: This is the issue we believe Americans are most passionate about. But as (The Nation magazine's) John Nichols says, "This is the most dynamic yet undercovered movement in America," and we think that's true.

BETWEEN THE LINES: The process of passing an amendment to the Constitution seems so laborious. Do you think there's any other way to get money out of politics?

MICHELE SUTTER: I don't think so. There was talk for a long while that this could be done through legislation, but I think folks have pretty much agreed that that's not workable. There are certain kinds of tweaks one could do around the edges. But this Supreme Court will find for all of those laws – as they did for example in Montana, (which) tried to uphold their 100-year-old ban on corporate spending in elections – the Supreme Court delivered a summary judgment that there can be no doubt that Citizens United applies to Montana. So that's where they're coming from. So we think it's only an amendment that will really do it so it becomes part of our Constitution and part of the fabric of our democracy. I don't think that an amendment – while it perhaps looks like an extreme "lift" from here – really is.

I think part of the issue is that everyone speaks about it as if it's impossible because that allows these kinds of undemocratic postures to remain entrenched and in place. When people do choose to amend the Constitution, it can happen very quickly – as when 18-year-olds were given the vote – if the American people see that something is correct, they will do it. And I think throughout our history you'll notice that amendments seem to come in clusters and we think that's because, for example in the Progressive Era, once you pass an amendment, that burden of impossibility is lifted and folks say, "Ah, that actually wasn't too hard, was it?" Now, let's address this issue. That's the kind of thing we're hoping will happen here, because Americans overwhelmingly believe that our government is corrupted by money and that something needs to be done about it. We hope to provide some hope and a path to spur action.

BETWEEN THE LINES: Where I live, in Connecticut, and in many eastern states, voters cannot pass binding referenda. But in California, you've passed all kinds of binding referendum questions. Why did MOVI – Money Out, Voters In – choose to pursue a non-binding referendum in this case?

MICHELE SUTTER: Well, we're not enacting any sort of California law. What our bill will do – now Proposition 49 – is call upon the Congress to act, so we're not changing anything in California. The way that Californians have historically used their voter advisory mechanism – and we use it very, very sparingly – is when national policy is directly at odds with the California people. So we are commenting on a national situation and letting the U.S. Congress know that we want them to get busy and make this a priority.

BETWEEN THE LINES: So it's different than, for example, California passing a ban on genetically modified organisms...

MICHELE SUTTER: That's right. We can't have an impact directly on national law, right?

BETWEEN THE LINES: So, far, 16 states have passed a call for a Constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United.

MICHELE SUTTER: Yeah, that's 16 state legislatures. But the movement is much bigger than that. There are actually only eight states in the U.S. that have taken no action on this matter, the overturning of Citizens United call. It is in process in 20 other state legislatures; it's been introduced. And there are a number of states where there have only been municipal actions; for example in Utah, Salt Lake City passed a resolution calling on Congress to get us an amendment on this. This is one of those things were you go, "Wait a minute. This is going on in 42 states and I don't see this anywhere in the media; what is that about?" And we think it's about how handsomely the media profit from all the money that is spent on campaigns.

BETWEEN THE LINES: You said there are two routes to a Constitutional amendment. Can you elaborate.

MICHELE SUTTER: There are two ways to amend the Constitution. One is that it begins in Congress and goes to the states. If that doesn't happen, the states call for a convention, and convene with delegates and representatives and they actually wind up writing the amendment and taking it back to the states and just leaving Congress out of the process. So California has acted both ways – California and Vermont, are the two states so far – and we hope that catches fire as well, because we think this is an issue that does require the kitchen sink and whatever else we can throw at it.

For more information on Money Out, Voters In, visit moneyoutvotersin.org.

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