Merkel just wouldn’t let the cat out of the bag. In the first days after the arms sale scandal began, her front seat in the Bundestag was conspicuously empty. When she finally did show up she wore a sour look but said not a word. The decision made and any reasoning behind it were highly […]
Archive | News
News updates or analysis.
Israeli Flags at South Sudan Independence Celebrations
Images of Israeli flags at the celebrations of the independence of South Sudan have been widely circulated and commented upon in the Arabic-language media, though they appear to have received no attention in the English-language media. E.g.: Broadcast by BBC Arabic Published online by Al Jazeera on 9 July 2011 Published online by Rum Online […]
Power and Water at Risk: The Energy-Water Collision
Excerpt: Cooling power plants requires the single largest share of U.S. freshwater withdrawals: 41 percent. This water dependence threatens both the availability and the quality of our water resources. . . . The water use habits of power plants pose risks, not only to the water sources and to other users, but also to […]
Syria News Roundup: The Beginning of the End of the Syrian Revolt?
Syrians for BHL Rami Zurayk (Land and People, 8 July 2011): “Is there anyone who follows politics and champions the Arab and Palestinian causes who does not know Bernard Henri Levy? . . . He was one of the first to enter the shattered remains of Jenin on board a Zionist tank to express his […]
C Is for Capitalism
A is for Airstrike; B is for Barack Obama; C is for Capitalism.
“Not Only for Facundo Cabral, But Also for the Future of Our Children”
Argentinean singer Facundo Cabral, best known for his song “I’m Not from Here, Nor Am I from There,” was murdered this morning on his way to Guatemala’s La Aurora airport after a concert tour of that country. In his 2006 interview with Télam, Cabral said: “People often call me maestro, singer-songwriter, poet, troubadour, minstrel, and […]
Weak Job Growth Leads to Another Rise in Unemployment
The Labor Department reported that the economy created just 18,000 jobs in June. It also revised down the previous two months’ numbers, bringing the average rate of job growth over this period to 87,000 jobs a month. The slow job growth led to another rise in the unemployment rate, which edged up to 9.2 percent. […]
Help Us Improve New Edition of The Politics of Immigration: Questions and Answers
We’re now working on a new edition of our book, The Politics of Immigration: Questions and Answers, and you can help us. We won’t be making dramatic changes — unfortunately, not that much has changed in the immigration debate since the book came out back in 2007. The media repeat the same myths about immigration, […]
Nandini Sundar & Ors vs. State of Chhattisgarh
Excerpt: This case represents a yawning gap between the promise of principled exercise of power in a constitutional democracy, and the reality of the situation in Chattisgarh, where the Respondent, the State of Chattisgarh, claims that it has a constitutional sanction to perpetrate, indefinitely, a regime of gross violation of human rights in a […]
On Using the Chained CPI for Social Security Cost of Living Adjustments
There has been considerable discussion of basing the Social Security cost of living adjustment (COLA) on the Chained Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (C-CPI-U) as a “painless” way of generating large budget savings. This view reflects serious confusion about what the switch to the C-CPI-U involves. (The switch would also lead to higher […]
South African Trade Unions and ANC Youth League Protest against NATO Bombings of Libya
NUMSA and other COSATU workers, ANC Youth League President Julius Malema, and members of the South African Communist Party gathered outside the United States Embassy in Pretoria, Gauteng to demonstrate against the NATO bombings of Libya. “South Africa should not have voted for that resolution,” said Malema, referring to UN Security Council Resolution 1973 […]
Suez Workers on Strike
Workers of the Suez Canal Authority are continuing their three-week strike for better wages and working conditions. Improvements have already been negotiated, but with implementation now twice delayed, the workers are calling for the resignation of Suez Canal Authority Chairman Ahmed Fadel. This video was released by Ahram Online on 6 July 2011. Cf. […]
Collective Bargaining or Criminal Conspiracy?
“Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery.” — Bob Marley, “Redemption Song,” 1979 I’ve got it made. I’m sixty-one years old and I’ve been retired for two and a half years. I’ve got a pension, health insurance, and money in the bank. I own my own home. I’m debt free. I’m a fortunate man, but it wasn’t […]
Job
Eneko Las Heras, born in Caracas in 1963, is a cartoonist based in Spain. The cartoon above was first published on his blog . . . Y sin embargo se mueve on 1 July 2011. Translation by Yoshie Furuhashi (@yoshiefuruhashi | yoshie.furuhashi [at] gmail.com). | Print
Bernard-Henri Lévy’s “SOS Syrie” Conference: Zionists, Muslim Brothers, and Other Leaders of “Change in Syria”
Bernard-Henri Lévy, well known for his devotion to humanitarian military interventions, organized a conference to “stop the massacre” in Syria, “SOS Syrie,” in Paris on the fourth of July. There is no doubt that BHL is eager to replicate his Libyan success in Syria. Given the clear Russian opposition to any military intervention in Syria, […]
On the Special Tribunal for Lebanon
2 July 2011 To the final subject: the current situation. To the Lebanese people, I say to them the following: don’t worry about civil strife. Those who talk about civil strife in Lebanon actually want that to come about. There will be no Sunni-Shiite strife and no civil war in Lebanon. Everyone should be assured […]
On Attempts to Undermine the Democratic Revolutionary Course of Swaziland’s Transition
Now that Swaziland is on the verge of far-reaching change, with the Tinkhundla system teetering on the brink of collapse, we are seeing a scramble by reactionary forces to try to take the initiative in the name of the pro-democracy movement and set the agenda for Swaziland’s future. These forces, which have received backing […]
An Interview with Bassam Alkadi, President of the Syrian Women Observatory
Bassam Alkadi is President of the Syrian Women Observatory, Syria’s main women’s rights organization. A relentless fighter for human rights in Syria, he has been fired from his job, arrested, jailed, and forbidden from traveling, but he continues to be driven by logic and not revenge. He rejects dialogue for the sake of dialogue. Instead, […]
COSATU Calls on Workers to Join Protest March against Bombing of Libya
COSATU has called on all workers to join the march organised by NUMSA to the Embassies of the US, Britain and France tomorrow, 6th July, 2011 starting at 10 am. The aim of the march is to protest the bombings led by the forces of imperialism as represented by the countries above against the people […]
What to Do about the Debt Ceiling Impasse: An Accounting Solution to an Accounting Problem
Ron Paul’s Surprisingly Lucid Solution to the Debt Ceiling Impasse Representative Ron Paul has hit upon a remarkably creative way to deal with the impasse over the debt ceiling: have the Federal Reserve Board destroy the $1.6 trillion in government bonds it now holds. While at first blush this idea may seem crazy, on more […]
