Archive | September, 2011

Brazil’s GDP grew at a 2.5 percent annualized rate in the second quarter, down from 5.4 percent in the first quarter, and somewhat lower than its year-over-year growth of 3.2 percent.  GDP is now 7.8 percent above its pre-recession peak. By Sector Brazil continued its trend toward services and away from industry.  While services contributed […]

Yara Kassem is a cartoonist in Cairo, Egypt.  This cartoon was circulated via her Twitter account on 25 September 2011; it is reproduced here for non-profit educational purposes.  Cf. “PHR denounces sentences for #Bahraini medics & protestors, calls for #Bahrain to set aside verdicts — http://ow.ly/6IvOt” (Physicians for Human Rights, 29 September 2011). | Print

CCR Cites a Lack of Adherence to Constitutional and International Laws That Afford Due Process Today, in response to the news that a missile attack by an American drone aircraft had killed U.S. citizen Anwar Al-Awlaki in Yemen, the Center for Constitutional Rights, which had previously brought a challenge in federal court to the legality […]

  “The cleaner they look . . .” “. . . the more shit is hidden inside.” Jorge Alaminos Fernández is a graphic artist and designer in Spain.  This cartoon was first published in Litoral Gráfico on 12 September 2011 under a Creative Commons license.  Translation by Yoshie Furuhashi (@yoshiefuruhashi | yoshie.furuhashi [at] gmail.com). | […]

Last week Brazilian Finance Minister Guido Mantega proposed that the BRICS countries offer help to Europe, either through the International Monetary Fund (IMF) or by buying up European bonds.  I can understand the sentiment: The European authorities have created a financial crisis that is already slowing the world economy and could potentially have even worse […]

  President and Brother Evo Morales, Since 2006, Bolivia has shown leadership to the world on how to tackle the most profound challenges of our time.  We have achieved the approval of the Human Right to Water and Sanitation in the United Nations and promoted a vision for society based on Vivir Bien (Living Well) […]

They still lynching from plantations to the prisonsMethods changed but it’s the same systemWhite robes used to burn a crucifixNow black robes sign a death sentence Rebel Diaz, an acclaimed Bronx-based political rap duo, will soon be releasing their debut album, The Radical Dilemma.  Produced by Agent of Change. var idcomments_acct = ‘c90a61ed51fd7b64001f1361a7a71191’; var idcomments_post_id; […]

Not because it was brutal or clumsy or anticipated was there any less indignation about the Yankee judge from the South Florida District denying René González, the Cuban anti-terrorist hero, the right to return to the heart of his family in Cuba after having served the unfair sentence imposed on him.… After a cruel and undeserved 13-year prison sentence, the United States government—that gave birth to monsters such as Posada Carriles and Orlando Bosch who, as CIA agents had a hand in the exploding of a Cuban airliner full of passengers in mid-flight—forces René to remain in that nation, where he shall be at the mercy of unpunished murderers for three long years, under a regime described as supervised “freedom”. Still unfairly and vengefully imprisoned for long terms of confinement, are another three Cuban heroes, and another one sentenced to two life terms. That is how the empire responds to the growing world clamor for the freedom of these men.

  Bahrain’s largest opposition group is resisting grassroots demands for renewed full-scale street protests amid regional pressure to strike a compromise solution with the regime. Al-Wefaq and other Bahraini opposition groups boycotted the country’s parliamentary by-elections last Saturday.  But al-Wefaq did not support the latest calls for demonstrations at Pearl Square and may be pushing […]

  “What this is about for me most is exercising our long-sleeping democracy muscle.” — Marina from Brooklyn Video by Naomi Less.  Music by Glenn Grossman.  For more information, e.g. <anonops.blogspot.com>; <occupywallst.org>. | Print  

The Case-Shiller 20-City index rose 0.9 percent in July after rising by 1.1 percent in June.  It has now increased at a 13.1 percent annual rate over the last three months; although it is still down by 4.1 percent over the last year.  Eighteen of the 20 cities had prices increases, with only Phoenix and […]

Congresswoman María Corina Machado’s Speeches:“I hate communism, I hate communism, I hate communism, I hate communism, I hate communism, I hate communism, I hate communism, I hate communism, I hate communism, I hate communism, I hate communism, I hate communism, I hate communism, I hate communism, I hate communism, I hate communism, I hate communism, […]

  Address to the 66th Session of the United Nations General Assembly, New York, 26 September 2011 Excerpt: As early as the 21st of February, Commander in Chief Fidel Castro Ruz had warned that NATO was inexorably preparing a war against Libya.  Since then, Cuba has indefatigably engaged in the defense not of a government […]

Carlos Latuff is a Brazilian cartoonist.  Cf. Yasmine Fathi, “The Curious Case of Tantawi’s Civilian Suit” (Ahram Online, 27 September 2011). | Print

  Daphne Berdahl.  On the Social Life of Postsocialism: Memory, Consumption, Germany.  Edited by Matti Bunzl.  Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2010.  xx + 166 pp.  $65.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-253-35434-1; $24.95 (paper), ISBN 978-0-253-22170-4. On the Social Life of Postsocialism; Memory, Consumption, Germany is a posthumous collection of Daphne Berdahl’s essays, written over the course of […]

If our Nobel Prize [Obama] winner is deceiving himself—something that has yet to be established—that perhaps explains the incredible contradictions in his reasoning and the confusion sowed among his listeners.… There is not a drop of morality, not even of politics, in his attempt to justify his announced decision to veto any resolution approved supporting the recognition of Palestine as an independent state and a member of the United Nations. Even politicians who in no way share socialist ideas and lead parties which were closely allied with Augusto Pinochet support Palestine’s right to full membership in the UN.

  Palestinian prisoners in Israeli occupation prisons issued a statement on Sunday, September 25, 2011, stating that they plan to begin an open-ended hunger strike on September 27, 2011, demanding an end to the isolation of Ahmad Sa’adat, an end to isolation for all Palestinian political prisoners, and an end to the policies of repression […]

24 September 2011 For more information, e.g. <anonops.blogspot.com>; <occupywallst.org>. var idcomments_acct = ‘c90a61ed51fd7b64001f1361a7a71191’; var idcomments_post_id; var idcomments_post_url; | Print

“The ‘Initiative against the Missile Shield in Kürecik’ carried their struggle against the Early Warning Radar System as part of the NATO Missile Shield to the heart of Istanbul.  About 500 people joined the protest march from Taksim to the Galatasaray Square on Sunday (25 September).  The action alliance demonstrated against installing the radar in […]

  Elections held in Bahrain over the weekend are the latest ruse by the regime to feign democratic change.  While the charade of ballot box rituals is taking place, the trial of health workers expected to appear in court this week is a fresh reminder that repression in the kingdom is far from over.  It […]