Archive | May, 2011

  The sun had not yet risen in Cairo, as the Stay Human convoy began to prepare the departure for Gaza.  The journey about to be embarked upon was one filled with expectations and hope.  The importance of crossing the border at Rafah following the protests that brought down the Mubarak regime was on the […]

Job losses in the recent recession were steeper and more prolonged than in any contraction in the last 60 years.  The economy lost more than 6 percent of payroll jobs at the worst of the contraction compared with 3 percent in the 1981 recession and smaller losses in other downturns.  From December 2007 until the […]

“The activists in Tunisia who have been organizing this meeting since mid-February are very clear about one fundamental point: Let’s not call this project a caravan because we don’t need your help or in other words your Western solidarity, which often bears the stamp of colonial charity, and because we have demonstrated that we are […]

  Moscow against UN Security Council Taking Up Syria — Source MOSCOW, May 11 (Interfax) — Moscow is against the Syria issue being put before the UN Security Council, a Russian Foreign Ministry source said on Wednesday. “Syria mustn’t be discussed in the Security Council, that is obvious,” the source told Interfax. China Calls on […]

Convinced that Hosni Mubarak would inevitably resort to overt military force against protesters, my wife and I landed in Athens on February 4.  Days of protesting, nights spent guarding the streets, and concerns for the sanity of our geographically distant family had taken its toll.  Ironically, after less than 24 hours in Athens, I said […]

The first casualty of the Libya war is . . . . . . truth. Carlos Latuff is a Brazilian cartoonist.  Translation by Yoshie Furuhashi (@yoshiefuruhashi | yoshie.furuhashi [at] gmail.com). | Print

Jamaa Al-Yad, an artists’ collective located in Beirut, in coordination with representatives from various Palestinian and Lebanese civil society organizations, is providing a collection of materials (posters, flyers, handouts, stickers, stencils, etc.) to be used to publicize “The Return to Palestine March” and related activities scheduled for May 15 throughout the world.  These materials are […]

The detention of migrants is a multi-billion dollar industry, one in which immigrants are traded like products.  They are for sale to the highest bidder.  Who benefits and who profits?  Corrections Corporation of America, or CCA, the GEO Group, and Management and Training Corporation combined own over 200 facilities in the nation, with over 150,000 […]

For the fifth week in a row new unemployment insurance (UI) claims came in over 400,000.  The number for last week was 434,000, bringing the 4-week moving average to 436,750, the highest it has been since November. Source: Department of Labor. This should be real news.  There were a lot of explanations for increases in the […]

In addition to the Generation III+ designs of commercial reactor vendors, the DOE is sponsoring R&D on advanced reactor systems at national laboratories and universities (see Box 8, p. 59).  Two are thermal reactors and three are fast reactors that would use plutonium-based fuels.  One goal of these designs — known as Generation IV — […]

  Following up on earlier efforts to highlight human rights abuses in Puerto Rico, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) hosted a high-publicity fact-finding delegation in San Juan on May 2 and 3.  The group, which included ACLU executive director Anthony D. Romero, political scientist Angelo Falcón, actress/choreographer Rosie Perez, and recently retired baseball player […]

Carlos Latuff is a Brazilian cartoonist.  | Print

More and more we hear that nothing can be done to tax major corporations because of the threat of how they would respond.  Likewise, we cannot stop their price gouging or even the government subsidies and tax loopholes they enjoy.  For example, as the oil majors reap stunning profits from high oil and gas prices, […]

But Support for Renewable Energy Policies Remains Key to Reaching Goals Renewable energy is likely to become the world’s dominant climate change solution by the middle of the century, according to a new study by the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).  It has the potential to be more competitive than nuclear power, […]

In Wisconsin, tens of thousands of public sector workers were going to work every day, helping the people in the DMV, hospitals, health care centers, public transportation, teachers, fire fighters, and clerical workers.  Then, on February 11, 2011 Republican Governor Scott Walker introduced a bill, with a Republican majority in the legislature, that would virtually […]

Intervention in the Name of Stability Professor Noam Chomsky recently delivered an important address in Amsterdam entitled “Contours of the World Order.”1  A large part of the speech was devoted to the role of the United States in defending its area of absolute hegemony.  According to Chomsky’s excellent analysis, the US relates to all countries […]

Coptic anger turns on the army after bloody sectarian violence gripped Cairo.  The clashes between Muslims and Christians in Imbaba left at least 12 dead.  Two churches were torched.  It’s the latest in a string of sectarian incidents since Egypt’s revolution, which left the army in interim charge of the country.  Now the Coptic community […]

The UN “independent panel” released their long awaited report (PDF) on the origin of cholera in Haiti.  Although the ultimate conclusion of the panel was that “the Haiti cholera outbreak was caused by the confluence of circumstances . . . and was not the fault of, or deliberate action of, a group or individual,” the […]

  Excerpt: On January 11, 2006, the United States signed into law the U.S.-Bahrain Free Trade Agreement (FTA), which entered into force between the United States and Bahrain on August 1, 2006.  In light of the ongoing brutal repression of peaceful protest carried out by the police and armed forces of Bahrain and the Gulf […]

Excerpt: Despite the fact that millions of Thais believe that the centre of power among the conservative elites today is the Monarchy or the Privy Council, the real centre of power, lurking behind the Throne, is the Military. . . .  The power of the Military is not unlimited and it relies on the ideology […]