Today we look back at 2012. In the most expensive election in U.S. history, President Barack Obama defeated Mitt Romney, forcing the Republicans to reconsider their policies, among others, around women and immigrants. While the major party presidential candidates did not take on climate change in any of their debates, it was a year of extreme weather — from the melting of the Arctic to Superstorm Sandy, to the massive typhoon in the Philippines. 2012 will also be remembered for a series of mass shootings: from Aurora, Colorado, to the Sikh temple in Wisconsin, to the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. The shooting death of the unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin in Florida sparked national protests, after police initially refused to arrest the gunman, George Zimmerman. The U.S. war in Afghanistan entered its 12th year, while Obama continues to expand his secret drone wars. [includes rush transcript]

As the new year approaches, North Carolina Gov. Bev Perdue is being urged to pardon a group of civil rights activists who were falsely convicted and imprisoned 40 years ago for the firebombing of a white-owned grocery store. Their conviction was overturned in 1980, but the state has never pardoned them. We’re joined by one of the “Wilmington Ten,” longtime civil rights activist Benjamin Chavis, who served eight years behind bars before later becoming head of the NAACP. We also speak to James Ferguson, a lead defense attorney for the Wilmington Ten; and to Cash Michaels, coordinator for the Wilmington Ten Pardons of Innocence Project and a reporter for The Wilmington Journal, where he has been covering the activists’ case. [includes rush transcript]

Democratic Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio is serving his last week in Congress after eight terms in office. Since 1997, Kucinich has been a leading progressive voice on Capitol Hill, known for actions including the bringing of articles of impeachment against George W. Bush for the invasion and occupation of Iraq, voting against the USA PATRIOT Act, advocating for ending the war on drugs, challenging U.S. warfare from Afghanistan to Libya, and pushing for single-payer healthcare to replace the patchwork, privatized U.S. system. Kucinich ran for president in 2004 and 2008 with a vow to create a Department of Peace. “The two-party system itself is failing the American people,” Kucinich says. “We have to look at the culture of violence that we have in America and … build a culture of peace.” [includes rush transcript]

As President Obama meets with congressional leaders at the White House in a last-ditch effort to reach a budget deal, we speak to outgoing Democratic Rep. Dennis Kucinich about the so-called fiscal cliff. If an agreement is not reached in time, $600 billion in automatic spending cuts and tax increases will go into effect on January 1. But the tax increases would not necessarily be permanent — the new Congress could pass legislation to cancel them retroactively after it begins its work next year. “We’ve been going in the wrong direction,” Kucinich says. “Why haven’t we been talking about stimulating the economy through the creation of jobs? We’ve seemed to accept a certain amount of unemployment as being necessary for the proper functioning of the economy, so that for corporations it will keep wages low. That is baloney. We’re creating our own economic vice here that is entrapping tens of millions of Americans.” [includes rush transcript]

Obama, Congressional Leaders to Meet on Fiscal Cliff as Deadline Looms, EPA Head Lisa Jackson Announces Resignation, Dockworkers at 14 U.S. Ports Threaten Strike over Pay, Michigan Enacts Emergency Manager Law Despite Voter Repeal, Chicago Teachers Union Sues City for Discrimination, NRA Renews Vow to Oppose U.N. Arms Treaty, Utah Teachers Attend Gun-Training Seminar, Confirmed U.S. Drone Strikes Decline in Pakistan, Rise in Yemen, Central African Republic Seeks Foreign Help as Rebels Advance on Capital, Indian Rape Victim Commits Suicide After Police Pressure to Marry Attacker, Putin Enacts U.S. Adoption Ban, Retired U.S. General Norman Schwarzkopf Dies at 78

Former House Majority Leader Dick Armey attempted a coup within his own tea party-linked nonprofit FreedomWorks earlier this year. When that failed, he took an $8 million payout from a millionaire Republican donor to leave. The incident highlighted what is believed to be growing turmoil inside the tea party movement after it rose to prominence ahead of the 2010 election. We’re joined by Politico reporter Kenneth Vogel. “[Armey] did in fact take a hit when he decided to go sort of all in with FreedomWorks and refashion himself as a tea party leader,” Vogel says. “There’s always been this kind of tug of war, if you will, in the tea party between national leaders, national groups that have deep-pocketed contributors and benefactors, like FreedomWorks … and the actual grassroots.” [includes rush transcript]

A federal judge has refused to recuse herself from the closely watched trial of jailed computer hacker Jeremy Hammond, an alleged member of the group “Anonymous” charged with hacking into the computers of the private intelligence firm Stratfor and turning over some five million emails to the whistleblowing website WikiLeaks. Hammond’s lawyers had asked Federal Judge Loretta Preska to recuse herself because her husband worked for a client of Stratfor, and himself had his email hacked. Hammond’s supporters say the Stratfor documents shed light on how the private intelligence firm monitors activists and spies for corporate clients. He has been held without bail or trial for more than nine months. We speak with Michael Ratner, president emeritus of the Center for Constitutional Rights, about Hammond’s case. [includes rush transcript]

Once-secret documents reveal the FBI monitored Occupy Wall Street from its earliest days and treated the nonviolent movement as a potential terrorist threat. Internal government records show Occupy was treated as a potential threat when organizing first began in August of 2011. Counterterrorism agents were used to track Occupy activities, despite the internal acknowledgment that the movement opposed violent tactics. The monitoring expanded across the country as Occupy grew into a national movement, with FBI agents sharing information with businesses, local police agencies and universities. We’re joined by Mara Verheyden-Hilliard of the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund, which obtained the FBI documents through the Freedom of Information Act. “We can see, decade after decade, with each social justice movement, that the FBI conducts itself in the same role over and over again, which is to act really as the secret police of the establishment against the people,” Verheyden-Hilliard says. [includes rush transcript]

The New York Daily News has published a series of articles highlighting the work of columnist and Democracy Now! co-host Juan González. “It is hard to believe that 25 years have passed since Juan walked past the landmark globe in the landmark News Building on E. 42nd St. and took a desk in the seventh-floor city room, a newcomer from a Philadelphia newspaper,” the editors of the paper write. “Juan came home to write a column. And write the hell out of it he did, as New York’s leading pro-left, pro-labor voice. Along the way, Juan became a beacon to whistleblowers and to wronged people for whom justice was lacking.” [includes rush transcript]

Geithner Warns U.S. on Verge of Debt Default, Months Later, U.S. Admits Responsibility for Drone Strike that Killed 11 in Yemen, Top Syrian General Defects to Opposition, Morsi Calls for Unity After Constitution Takes Effect; Opposition Plans New Protests, U.S. to Sell Surveillance Drones to South Korea, U.S. Deported Record 400,000 Immigrants in 2012, Supreme Court Refuses to Block Contraception Mandate, Los Angeles Holds Gun Buyback After Newtown, New York Newspaper Posts Map of Area Residents With Gun Permits, NBC News Anchor Probed for Displaying Gun Magazine, Hawaii Lt. Gov. Tapped to Fill Vacant Senate Seat, Russian Lawmakers Approve U.S. Adoption Ban, Dakota Mark 150th Anniversary of Mankato Executions

A new campaign for indigenous rights and environmental justice is spreading across Canada. The “Idle No More” movement began as a series of protests against a controversial government budget bill but has since expanded into a nationwide movement for political transformation. Aboriginal and environmental activists are calling on Prime Minister Stephen Harper to honor treaties with aborigines, open dialogue with environmentalists, and reject tar sands pipelines that would infiltrate First Nation territories. We go to Toronto to speak with Pamela Palmater, chair in indigenous governance at Ryerson University and spokeswoman for the Idle No More movement. “We, First Nations people, have been subsidizing the wealth and prosperity and programs and services of Canadians from our lands and resources,” Palmater says. “And that’s the reality here that most people don’t understand.” [includes rush transcript]

As the debate over gun control intensifies in the United States, work continues on an international treaty to regulate the global arms trade. On Monday, the United Nations General Assembly voted to reopen negotiations on the treaty. The United States dropped its opposition after stonewalling talks in July, a move that prompted critics to accuse President Obama of caving to congressional Republicans and the National Rifle Association in an election year. “I have not seen anywhere else in the world a gun lobby that has the same level of influence on its own government as the NRA does in the United States,” says Andrew Feinstein, author of “The Shadow World: Inside the Global Arms Trade” and a former African National Congress member of Parliament in South Africa. “The U.S. buys and sells almost as much weaponry as the rest of the world combined. So what happens in the U.S. is going to have enormous impact on the rest of the world.” [includes rush transcript]

“NRA Killing Our Kids” — that was the message of CODEPINK activists as they interrupted the first public address by National Rifle Association chief Wayne LaPierre since the Sandy Hook massacre. LaPierre broke the NRA’s post-Newtown silence on Friday by calling for armed guards in every school. CODEPINK protesters disrupted him by holding up banners reading “NRA Killing Our Kids” and “NRA: Blood On Your Hands.” In the days leading up to its call for firearms in schools, the NRA had promised to unveil what it called “meaningful contributions” to the gun control debate. [includes rush transcript]

Christmas Visitors Flock to Newtown Shooting Memorial, Protesters Disrupt NRA as It Calls for Guns in Schools, NY Gunman Kills 2 Firefighters After Setting Home on Fire, Obama Cuts Short Vacation for “Fiscal Cliff” Talks, Kerry Tapped for Secretary of State, Opening Senate Seat, Morsi Enacts Egyptian Constitution After Referendum Approved, Iran Accuses U.S. and Israel of New Cyberattacks, 4 Afghans Killed in Suicide Blast at U.S. Base, U.S. Army Teams Heading to 35 African Countries, FBI Monitored Occupy Wall Street from Earliest Days, Church Used as Sandy Relief Hub Targeted by Arson, Armey Departed Tea Party Group After Forceful Coup Attempt

Today, a Democracy Now! special with the Canadian physician and bestselling author, Dr. Gabor Maté. From disease to addiction, parenting to attention deficit disorder, Maté’s work focuses on the centrality of early childhood experiences to the development of the brain, and how those experiences can impact everything from behavioral patterns to physical and mental illness. While the relationship between emotional stress and disease, and mental and physical health more broadly, is often considered controversial within medical orthodoxy, Maté argues too many doctors seem to have forgotten what was once a commonplace assumption, that emotions are deeply implicated in both the development of illness, addictions and disorders, and in their healing. [includes rush transcript]

As 2013 approaches, marking the 50th anniversary of the historic 1963 March on Washington, we spend the hour with one of the last surviving speakers from that day: Civil rights icon, now 13-term Georgia Congressmember, John Lewis. During the 1960s, Rep. Lewis was arrested more than 40 times and beaten almost to death as he served as chair of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, marched side by side with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., helped organize the Freedom Rides, and campaigned for Robert Kennedy’s presidential bid.

We look at the bloody struggle to obtain — and protect — voting rights in the United States with Rep. Lewis, as he reflects on the ongoing struggle for voting rights today, when 16 states have passed restrictive voting laws that critics say target people of color. “It is so important for people to understand, to know that people suffered, struggled,” Lewis says. “Some people bled, and some died, for the right to participate. The vote is the most powerful nonviolent tool that we have in a democratic society. It’s precious. It’s almost sacred. We have to use it. If not, we will lose it.” [includes rush transcript]

Today is 12-21-12: Doomsday, the end of the world. That is, according to some interpretations of the Mayan calendar. Others say it’s the beginning of a new era. However, one doesn’t need to look at the Mayan calendar, the words of Nostradamus, the prophetic dreams of Daniel or the revelation made to John to see the world is in dire straits. The sky may not be falling in, but it sure felt like it to the victims of Superstorm Sandy. Along with climate change, gun violence, drones, warfare and other henchmen on the horizon, it’s easy to see why some may think the apocalypse is fast approaching. The word “apocalypse” originated from the Greek term “apocalypsis,” which literally means “uncovering,” in the sense of revealing something previously hidden. Someone known for pulling the covers off is activist and performance artist Reverend Billy, who is holding his “The End of the World” ritual in New York City’s Times Square tonight. Along with his Church of Stop Shopping, he has long preached fiery sermons against recreational consumerism and climate disaster. He is urging people to turn away from corporate commodities and fossil fuels. “I’m just inviting all of us to be creative, to give meaning to our lives right now,” Reverend Billy says. [includes rush transcript]