Democracy Now

As the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina approaches, we speak with the makers of a new film that takes an inside look at the disaster and the many forms of devastation that followed. Trouble the Water follows a couple from New Orleans’ Ninth Ward and their return home two weeks after the hurricane. It begins with footage shot by the couple, who documented the approach of the hurricane and the moment the floodwaters began to rise.

As violence escalates in Afghanistan, both Barack Obama and John McCain support sending more troops. “Both of them are wrong,” says Sonali Kolhatkar, host of Uprising on Pacifica radio station KPFK and co-author of the book Bleeding Afghanistan. “You really cannot solve the situation in Afghanistan by throwing more troops at it, because over the last several years tens of thousands of troops in Afghanistan have not managed to do anything other than worsen the war.”

Two converted fishing boats set sail from Cyprus today carrying more than forty activists and humanitarian workers who are part of the Free Gaza movement that is trying to break the Israeli blockade on the Gaza Strip. The Israeli foreign ministry said in an open letter to the participants, “We assume that your intentions are good but, in fact, the result of your action is that you are supporting the regime of a terrorist organization in Gaza.” We speak with three of the activists at sea: Huwaida Arraf, co-founder of the International Solidarity Movement; Lauren Booth, a journalist and sister-in-law of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair; and Israeli anthropology professor Jeff Halper of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions. [includes rush transcript – partial]

Possible Withdrawal of US Combat Troops in Iraq Set for 2011, Electronic Voting Company Admits System Flaw Could Cause Lost Votes, Federal Judge Delays Execution of Jeffery Wood, Obama on VP Pick: ?I Want Somebody Who’s Independent?, McCain Can’t Recall How Many Homes He Owns, Death Toll Reaches 70 in Pakistan, New Rule on Abortions to Impact Hospitals and Clinics, US Releases Iraqi Journalist, Marine on Trial for Fallujah Killings, Pro-Tibet Activists Speak Out in Beijing

A thirty-five-year-old man on death row in Texas faces execution tonight for a murder he didn’t commit. Jeff Wood is scheduled to die by lethal injection at 6:00 p.m., unless Governor Rick Perry grants him clemency. Wood was an accomplice in a 1996 convenience store robbery. He was sitting in a truck outside when the clerk was shot and killed. The man who pulled the trigger was executed six years ago, but Wood was given a death sentence for the same crime under the Texas law of parties. We go to the prison where Jeff Wood is awaiting death to speak with his wife, mother and father outside. We also speak with Liliana Segura of the Campaign to End the Death Penalty. [includes rush transcript]

Tensions are high between the United States and Russia over the ongoing conflict in Georgia. On Wednesday, soon after NATO foreign ministers decided to cut formal ties with Russia until it withdrew all its troops from Georgia, President Bush vowed to continue to support Georgia. We speak with William Hartung, director of the Arms and Security Initiative at the New America Foundation.

The City of New York has agreed to pay $2 million to a group of fifty-two protesters who were swept up in a mass arrest during a peaceful antiwar protest outside the headquarters of the Carlyle Group in 2003. We speak with the lead plaintiff in the case, Sarah Kunstler.

Report: 79 Million Have Trouble Paying Medical Bills, FBI Agents May Get More Power to Probe Anyone, 40 Die in Bomb Blasts at Pakistani Arms Factory, Iraq and US Negotiators Complete Draft Security Agreement, Poll Shows McCain Takes 5-Point Lead Over Obama, Obama Ad Criticizes McCain Ties to Abramoff Colleague, McCain on Reinstituting a Military Draft: ?I Don?t Disagree?, Libby Questioned Over Forged CIA Iraq Letter, Report: NATO Friendly Fire Killed French Troops in Afghanistan, Two Elderly Chinese Women Face Possible Labor Camp for Filing Protest Permit, UN Official Warns of Neo-Colonial Food System, Court Rules Passengers Can Challenge Inclusion on No-Fly List, 150 Killed in Spanish Airline Crash, Peruvian Indigenous Groups End Protests After Land Law Thrown Out, Ex-Indonesian Intel Official Charged with Murdering Activist, Ohio Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones, 58, Dies, Former Chinese Leader Hua Guofeng, 87, Dies

Andrew Bacevich is a conservative historian who spent twenty-three years serving in the US Army. He also lost his son in Iraq last year. In a new book titled The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism, Bacevich argues that although many in this country are paying a heavy price for US domestic and foreign policy decisions, millions of Americans simply continue to shop, spend and satisfy their appetite for cheap oil, credit and the promise of freedom at home. Bacevich writes, “As the American appetite for freedom has grown, so too has our penchant for empire.” [includes rush transcript – partial]

Three months after the largest immigration raid in US history, when nearly 400 workers were arrested at a meatpacking plant, Postville, Iowa is a changed town. Postville lost more than a quarter of its population in the raid. And for those left behind, namely the wives and children of the men taken away, the town has been turned into what some have described as an open-air prison. Dozens of immigrant women remain in Postville without status or a means of support. Many of them are even forbidden from leaving and have been made to wear electronic monitoring bracelets. [includes rush transcript]

Report: US to Send up to 15,000 More Troops to Afghanistan, Taliban Launches Most Serious Attacks Since 2001, NATO Suspends Formal Contacts with Russia, Russian Seizes Georgian Troops; Blow Up Naval Vessel, US & Poland Sign Missile Base Deal, Obama Challenges McCain on His Ties to Musharraf, Aboard Oil Rig Operated by Exxon and Chevron, McCain Calls for More Drilling, NRA Spy Scandal Linked to McCain Campaign, Five Protesters Arrested for Unfurling ?Free Tibet? Banner in Beijing, Pakistan’s Sharif Threatens to Pull Out of Coalition Government, UN Commemorates Fifth Anniversary of Iraq Bombing, NYC & D.C. Area to Track License Plate Numbers, US Expands Database on Travelers at Border Checkpoints, Court Overturns Bush Rule on Monitoring Emissions, Mexico Urged to Investigate Killings of Journalists, NYC Agrees to Pay 52 Anti-War Protesters $2 Million

Earlier this month, a thirty-four-year-old Chinese computer engineer, Hiu Lui Ng, who overstayed his visa, died in a Rhode Island immigration detention center. He had cancer in his liver, lung and bones, and a fractured spine. Despite repeated complaints of severe pain, Mr. Ng was refused independent medical evaluation by immigration officials. Before Mr. Ng died on August 6th, he told his sister that the nurses at the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Center in Rhode Island had told him to ?stop faking? his illness. We speak to immigration attorney Joshua Bardavid, Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) and Renee Feltz, co-creator of the site BusinessOfDetention.com.

A former priest known as the ?Bishop of the Poor,? Fernando Lugo is the first Paraguayan president since 1946 not to be from the conservative Colorado Party. He has pledged to give land to the landless and fight corruption. We speak to Greg Grandin, professor of Latin American history at NYU. [includes rush transcript]

10 French Soldiers Killed in Afghanistan, Algerian Bombing Kills 43, White House Praises Musharraf as Pakistani President Resigns, 12 Killed in Bomb Blast at Pakistani Hospital, US: Russia Is Playing a ?Very Dangerous Game?, Obama Expected to Name Running Mate this Week, Pelosi Proposes to Expand Offshore Drilling as Part of Energy Bill, Report: Iraq Likely to Abandon Short-Term Oil Contracts, Judge Reduces Charges in Killing of Mexican Immigrant, Activists Protest Denver’s Plan to House Jailed Protesters in Warehouse, Peru Declares State of Emergency Following Indigenous Protests, 43 Die in Mexican State Since Friday in Drug-Related Violence, China Approves No Permits to Protest at Olympics, Judge Rules Aceh Villagers Can Sue Exxon for Human Rights Abuses, Cheney Aide Considered for Top Energy Dept Position

The debate over the role that psychologists should play in military interrogations heated up this weekend at the annual convention of the American Psychological Association. After years of back-and-forth discussion and several resignations from the association, APA members are now voting on a referendum that could make any participation in coercive prisoner interrogations a violation of their code of ethics. Meanwhile, California became the first state in the nation to officially condemn the participation of health professionals—including psychologists—in coercive interrogations of prisoners in the so-called war on terror.

After four days of heavy fighting, Russian tanks are now approaching central Georgian cities away from the separatist regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Russian officials say Georgia provoked the assault by attacking South Ossetia late last week, causing heavy civilian casualties. NATO’s Secretary General and President Bush have both condemned Russia’s ?disproportionate? use of force in Georgia.

Three days of mourning have been declared in the West Bank and Gaza to mark the death of Mahmoud Darwish, the Poet Laureate of the Palestinians. Darwish was considered one of the most important Arab poets, a towering literary figure for over four decades. The poetry of Mahmoud Darwish is well known and loved across the Arab world by people from all walks of life.

Russia-Georgia Fighting Enters Fourth Day, Fighting Occurs One Month After US Military Exercise in Georgia, Iraqi FM: ?Very Clear Timeline? of US Troop Withdrawal Needed, Clinton Adviser Urged Attacks on Obama as Being Un-American, Bolivia’s Evo Morales Victorious in Recall Election, Two Pro-Tibet Protesters Arrested at Olympics, NBC Hires Kissinger Associate as China Analyst for Olympic Games, 48 Arrested in Burma Marking 20th Anniversary of Uprising, India Agrees to Help Bhopal Survivors, Negotiator: Palestinians May Demand One-State Solution, Edwards Admits to Affair with Campaign Aide, McCain Obtained Marriage License with Cindy While Still Married to First Wife, Verizon & Unions Reach Agreement, Nagasaki Mayor Calls for Abolition of Nuclear Weapons, Save the Peaks Condemn Court Ruling on Ski Resort on Sacred Mountain in Arizona, Cindy Sheehan to Appear on November Ballot vs. Nancy Pelosi, Palestinian Poet Mahmoud Darwish, 67, Dies, Anthony Russo of Pentagon Papers Fame, 71, Dies, Soul Singer Isaac Hayes, 65, Dies