Peace activist Carlos Arredondo has come to be known as "the man in the hat" and widely described as a hero for a viral image of him in a cowboy hat pinching the severed artery of a bloodied, wheelchair-bound victim in the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombings. Arredondo is no stranger to tragedy: He became a prominent opponent of the Iraq War after his son, Lance Cpl. Alexander Arredondo, was killed in Iraq in 2004. His surviving son, Brian, committed suicide in 2011. Carlos and his wife Mélida, join DemocracyNow! to describe witnessing the Boston Marathon bombings and the immediate response to aid the victims.

Carlos Arredondo:

"I just concentrate in removing the fence to help everybody coming to the scene. And then I concentrate on a young man who lost both of the limbs. I ripped up a T-shirt, and another gentleman helped me out, and we put this tourniquet on the legs. And then the first wheelchair that arrived, you know, I picked him up and put him in the wheelchair, and I dragged him out of there, because only I can do at the time."

When Marines came to Carlos Arredondo’s home in 2004 to inform him that his son had been killed in Iraq, he destroyed their van in a frenzy and accidentally set it, as well as himself, on fire, burning 30% of his body. After his recovery, Carlos Arredondo began his mission of peace by heading to Washington D.C. to join protesters at "Camp Democracy."

Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie has teamed up with Britain’s Foreign Secretary William Hague for a trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to highlight the use of rape as a weapon of war and to raise awareness of the issue on an international level.

The two will visit a rescue camp for women north-west of Goma to raise awareness about warzone rape.

“This visit is about hearing first hand from people who have endured rape and sexual violence during the conflict in the eastern DRC. We want justice for the victims and we want to know how the world can protect thousands of women, men and children at risk of rape in many other conflict zones. We want to persuade governments around the world to give this issue the attention it deserves,” said Jolie.

“Unless the world acts, we will always be reacting to atrocities, treating survivors rather than preventing rape in the first place,” added Jolie.

Hague hopes to present his findings to the forthcoming Group of Eight summit in London.

He is calling on the G8 leaders to agree that rape and sexual violence constitute breaches of the Geneva Conventions governing warfare.

“More often than not the international community looks away, the perpetrators of these brutal crimes walk free and the cycle of injustice and conflict is repeated,” he said.

“It is time for real, meaningful action by the governments of the world to say that the use of rape as a weapon of war is unacceptable, to bring perpetrators to justice and to lift the stigma from survivors. This is my personal priority for the meeting of G8 foreign ministers,” he added.

As a UNHCR Special Envoy, Jolie has fought for the rights of refugees worldwide for over a decade.

A 2011 film by the 37-year-old actress, “In the Land of Blood and Honey,” depicts the experiences of victims in the infamous rape camps set up during the ethnic cleansing in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

People pray and stand outside the overflow area of a vigil at the Saint Rose of Lima church in Newtown, Connecticut. Photo: Reuters

Have you wondered where on earth people go to purchase these guns that are so powerful that they can leave a town, and a nation so devastated that churches have standing room only? Cause young people to drop down on their knees in prayer wherever there's room?

Of course, there are gun stores. But it's as simple as heading down to your local Wal-Mart.

"Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God," a new documentary by Oscar-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney, investigates how a charismatic priest in Milwaukee abused more than 200 deaf children in a Catholic boarding school under his control. The young students were molested again and again by Father Lawrence Murphy, who stalked them in their dorm rooms at night, on trips to his rural cabin, and even in the confessional booth. Gibney, whose past films include "Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room" and the Academy Award-winning "Taxi to the Dark Side," joins Democracy Now! to discuss his new exposé, which opens this Friday in theaters in New York City and Los Angeles, and will debut on HBO in February 2013.

Full transcript after the jump...

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[Photo Credit: Joshua Roberts/Bloomberg]

By Paul Kiel, ProPublica

An executive who the Justice Department says facilitated a scheme to defraud Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is now spearheading JPMorgan Chase's role in the government's program to compensate victims of the big banks' abusive foreclosure practices.

The executive, Rebecca Mairone, worked at Countrywide and Bank of America from 2006 until earlier this year, when she left for JPMorgan Chase, according to her LinkedIn profile.

In a lawsuit filed last month in federal court in New York, Justice Department attorneys allege that Countrywide, which was bought by Bank of America in 2008, perpetrated a two-year scam to foist shoddy home loans on Fannie and Freddie. Neither Mairone nor any other individuals are named as defendants in the civil suit, and no criminal charges have been filed against her or anyone else in connection with the alleged misconduct. But Mairone is one of two bank officials cited in the suit as having repeatedly ignored warnings about the "Hustle," as the alleged scheme was called inside the company, and she prohibited employees from circulating some of those warnings outside their division.

Mairone was chief operating officer of the Countrywide lending division that allegedly carried out the "Hustle." She took the helm of JPMorgan Chase's involvement in the Independent Foreclosure Review this summer, according to a former Chase employee.

The review, overseen by federal banking regulators, requires the nation's biggest banks to compensate victims for harm they inflicted on borrowers. Victims can receive up to $125,000 in cash or, in some cases, get their homes back. But the review has already been marred by evidence that the banks themselves play a major role in identifying the victims of their own abuses, raising the question of whether the review is compromised by a central conflict of interest.

Mairone's role raises additional questions about the Independent Foreclosure Review.

The review "never seemed designed to place first the interests of those who were supposed to be helped u2014 victimized homeowners," said Neil Barofsky, the former federal prosecutor who served as the special inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, better known as the bank bailout.

"Finding out that the person running it for JPMorgan Chase is a person whose conduct in the run-up to financial crisis was allegedly so egregious that she somehow managed to be one of the only people actually named in a case brought by the Department of Justice goes beyond irony," he continued. "It speaks volumes to the banks' true intent and lack of concern for homeowners when addressing the harm that they caused during the foreclosure crisis."

In response to ProPublica's questions about Mairone's role in the foreclosure review and the suit's allegations, Chase issued a brief statement confirming that Mairone is a managing director who is "working on the Independent Foreclosure Review process." The statement added, "It would not be appropriate for us to discuss another firm's litigation."

Chase declined to make Mairone available for comment, and she did not return a message left at her home number.

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From Moveon.org, Check out these brave people who’ve responded to Mitt Romney’s comment that 47% of Americans think of themselves as “victims” and will never “take responsibility for their lives.”

This first video was submitted by Donna & Bruce StClair from Forest, Virginia.

Submitted by DeEtte Beghtol Waleed from Multnomah, Oregon. She says “Mr. Romney… I take responsibility for my children, my grandchildren, and my great-children, and have done that for more than sixty years.”

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Good morning, everyone, today is Thursday, September 20, 2012. You may now stop speaking like pirates.

President Barack Obama sat down to chat with David Letterman on Tuesday, and while they discussed more than just politics, it seemed that his response to the leaked Romney fundraiser video was on everyone's mind. The video had over 2 million views on Monday alone.

Taking Mitt Romney to task, Obama said that "There are not a lot of people out there who think they are victims," and that voters want to make sure that their president is "not writing off big chunks of the country."

The secretly taped video showed the Republican presidential nominee describing "47 percent of the people" as Obama supporters who depend on government and believe they are victims. Romney said it is not his job "to worry about those people," referring to what he called Obama's locked-in supporters who believe they are "entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you name it."

"My expectation is that if you want to be president, you have to work for everyone, not just for some," Obama said during Letterman's "Late Show."

Romney has since said he made his point "inelegantly" in trying to describe differing visions for the nation.

Obama said people understand that the presidential candidates will make mistakes on the campaign trail. He said that includes one he regrets from 2008, when audio from one of his own private fundraisers had him saying that some residents of depressed rural areas get bitter and "cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them."

Having said that, Obama added, "One thing I've learned as president is that you represent the entire country."

The president and Letterman also chatted about lighter topics, with Obama joking about the Florida pizza restaurant owner who lifted him off the ground in a bear hug last week. `'I think he fixed something in my back," Obama said.

The two also exchanged compliments on their appearances:

"You look good," Obama said.

"You haven't seen me naked," Letterman said.

Obama replied: "We're going to keep it that way."

Mitt Romney’s leaked comments, recorded by a hidden camera at a closed-door fundraiser, that 47 percent of Americans “believe that they are victims” and prefer President Obama because his politics are “attractive to people who are not paying taxes” quickly lit up the blogosphere Monday (Our own Karoli posted the leaked video here), so quickly, in fact, that Romney held an impromptu press conference at 10:30 p.m. to address them. In his brief remarks, he doesn’t disavow the argument, instead saying it was “not elegantly stated” and “spoken off the cuff.” He also said that comments were in line with his campaign strategy to “focus on the people in the middle.” Apparently he's referring to the people in the middle of the top one percent along with him, because his remarks in that leaked video were a giant "F-U" to the rest of Americans. But in case any of Romney's internet team is reading, I pay my taxes every year. However, we still don't know if Mitt Romney pays his.

And as it turns out, the source of the leaked Romney video is the grandson of former President Jimmy Carter. James Carter IV is credited as a research assistant on the Mother Jones piece that broke the story. Carter spends time “almost every day” searching for video clips of Republicans.

President Obama spoke from the University of Colorado Hospital Sunday evening after meeting with the families of the victims killed in the Aurora theater shooting.

“It was an opportunity for families to describe how wonderful their brother, or their son, or daughter was, and the lives that they have touched, and the dreams that they held for the future,” Obama said in a hallway of the hospital. “I confessed to them that words are always inadequate in these kinds of situations, but that my main task was to serve as a representative of the entire country and let them know that we are thinking about them at this moment and will continue to think about them each and every day, and that the awareness that not only all of America but much of the world is thinking about them might serve as some comfort.”

Reflecting on the victims’ stories, the president said the stories of recovery are a reminder that “even in the darkest of days, life continues, and people are strong and people bounce back and people are resilient.”

Obama said he was particularly moved by the stories of Allie Young and Stephanie Davies, two survivors of the shooting and spoke at length of their experiences.

The president said Allie, 19, was saved by her friend Stephanie, 21, after being shot in the neck. Obama said Davies pulled Young out of the line of fire, staying with her and applying pressure to her wound even as the gunman continued to fire into the theater.

“I don’t know how many people at any age would have the presence of mind that Stephanie did or the courage that Allie showed and so as tragic as the circumstances of what we’ve seen today are, as heartbreaking for the families, it’s worth us spending most of our time on young Americans like Allie and Stephanie because they represent what’s best in us and they assure us that out of this darkness a brighter day is going to come,” Obama said.

Full transcript of the President's remarks after the jump.

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