Archive | February, 2009

  • DIRECTV Censors Gaza Strip TV Ad

    Washington, DC (February 3) — The US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation announced today that satellite television provider DIRECTV is refusing to accept a paid advertisement from the organization about the U.S. role in Israel’s war on and siege of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Both an extended internet version and the original 30-second […]

  • Cries of Ghosts across Centuries

    Babylon has fallen, has fallen Yea, Babylon has fallen Woe!  Woe!  Woe! Towers that soared into clear blue are at blocks of stone settled into earth all gone, all shattered ground into scattered dust Babylon has fallen, has fallen Yea, Babylon has fallen Woe!  Woe!  Woe! Now hordes of warring barbarians literate, skilled in killing […]

  • Pass the Stimulus — Then Help Shorten the Work Week

    As job losses hemorrhage, the American economy is in desperate need of a stimulus.  It is becoming increasingly clear that Congress must work rapidly to approve some version of President Obama’s plan. Then, Obama and the Congress should very quickly turn to taking a second, temporary step to create more jobs: creating incentives for companies […]

  • Lotteries: Disguised Tax Injustice

    Lotteries, now run by most of our 50 states, are disguised forms of taxation that fall most heavily on those least able to pay.  In today’s economic crisis, state leaders face rising resistance to taxation from everyone.  Therefore, many of them plan to expand lotteries even more, hoping that no one realizes they represent a […]

  • Employee Free Choice at Work: Checking Out of Stern’s Hotel California

    The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) wants its members to believe that their union is just like the alluring but ultimately nightmarish hostelry immortalized by The Eagles.   It’s a place of permanent imprisonment only “programmed to receive” workers and their dues money, not let either go elsewhere when the rhetoric of “progressive unionism” wears thin […]

  • No Justice, No Coat

    Want to hear something weird about the Left?  It’s chock-full of human nature.  For example: Some communist, in the dead of winter, stole my girlfriend’s coat. I take you back a few months.  A cold December.  My girlfriend and I are invited to a “holiday party,” as the Americans say.  Note how the festive noun […]

  • Chavismo: Christian, Anti-Nazi, Pro-Muslim, and Pro-Jewish

      Roy Chaderton, Venezuela’s Ambassador to the Organization of American States, speaks of numerous members of the Jewish community who have supported the struggles of peoples against imperialism and Zionism, and he rejects any attack against the Jewish people. Watching television footage of one of the necessary and legitimate protests against the Israeli Embassy in […]

  • Iceland Gets New Government

    The Geir Haarde government of Iceland became the first in the world to fall in the wake of the financial meltdown.  Now, Iceland has a provisional coalition government, headed by the world’s first lesbian prime minister, Johanna Sigurdardottit of the Social Democratic Alliance.  Left-Green Movement Chairman Steingrimur J. Sigfusson is reportedly now appointed Minister of […]

  • Israel Is Preventing Repair of the Electrical, Water, and Sewage Systems in Gaza

      Despite Promises to Facilitate Humanitarian Aid, Policy of Deliberate Obstruction Continues Even after the Ceasefire: The amount of industrial diesel Israel has permitted to enter Gaza is just 64% of the total needed to operate the power station. Since the fighting ended, Israel has totally obstructed the transfer of vital spare parts needed to […]

  • Radicalize the Alternatives: World Social Forum in Belem

    The World Social Forum (WSF) in Belem isn’t just another forum.  It’s the first WSF since the outbreak of the 2008 economic crisis, held at a moment when the total failure of neo-liberalism and the destructive character of global capitalism are exposed in all their harsh reality.  Besides, the Brazilian Amazon is a privileged place […]