Last week, just two days after the start of the government’s court-martial of Lieutenant Ehren Watada, the military judge presiding over the case declared a mistrial. Watada, a commissioned officer who in June 2006 refused orders to deploy to Iraq, has publicly spoken out against the war. We’ll speak with George Cheung, who has been working with the Watada campaign, about why the mistrial was declared and what it means for the prosecution.

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Protestors from the United States and Korea are assembling in Washington, DC this week as the city hosts the seventh and final round of negotiations for the Korea-US Free Trade Agreement. Opponents of the proposed agreement, which would be the largest US free trade deal since NAFTA in 1992, fear its effects on farmers and the working class. We will be joined by Hyewon Chong of the Korean Metal Workers Federation, an affiliate of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions.

Passed by Congress in 2005, the REAL ID Act calls for the creation of a standardized, national driver’s license intended to be less vulnerable to fraud. Recently, a number of states, including Maine, Montana, Georgia, Washington, and Wyoming, have moved to reject the law, saying that it will be too expensive to implement. Others have criticized the law as a misguided, post-9/11 attack on civil liberties and immigrants’ rights. Joining us to analyze the law, its opposition, and the battle to hold Governor Eliot Spitzer to his campaign promise to allow all immigrant New Yorkers to obtain driver’s licenses, regardless of status, will be Amy Sugimori, Executive Director of New York City-based La Fuente.

Finally, we will hear from Chicago-born and New York-based poet, performer, dancer and activist Kelly Tsai. Recently returned from this year’s World Social Forum in Nairobi, Kenya, which she attended as part of a delegation of progressive artists, she will speak with us about the event, as well as her upcoming performances in New York, the impending release of a new CD, and her appearance on the Def Poetry Jam 6th season premiere this Friday.