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  • A New Year for Greece

    Carlos Latuff is a Brazilian cartoonist. | Print

  • India: Growth for Whom?

    The year 2010 would be remembered as a scam-tainted year when allegations of corruption, both public and private, were difficult to keep track of.  Overwhelmed by these allegations, the government has attempted to focus on the fact that India is among the fastest growing countries in the world.  But even that boastful claim has been […]

  • Support Grows for Hunger Strike by Lucasville Uprising Prisoners on Death Row Protesting Their Harsh and Inhumane Treatment

      Monday, January 3, three inmates on death row at Ohio State Penitentiary (OSP) started a hunger strike to protest the conditions of their confinement.  Keith LaMar, Siddique Abdullah Hasan (Carlos Sanders), and Jason Robb received death sentences following the rebellion in the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville, OH.  They have been held at […]

  • If We Must Die

      Wrongfully convicted following the prison uprising in Lucasville, OH in 1993, Brother Bomani (Keith LaMar) is currently at Ohio’s supermax prison, Ohio State Penitentiary, where he began a hunger strike on January 3. Before I speak my piece, let me make one thing perfectly clear: I don’t want to die.  I want to live […]

  • Employment Growth Concentrated among Workers over Age 55

    The Labor Department reported that the unemployment rate fell to 9.4 percent in December.  However, much of the reason for the decline was a drop of 260,000 in the size of the labor force.  The employment-to-population (EPOP) ratio inched up by 0.1 percentage points to 58.3 percent, but it is still 0.2 percentage points below […]

  • Lucasville Five Hunger Strike: Interview with Staughton Lynd

    In 1993, the maximum security Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville, Ohio was the site of an historic prisoner rebellion, where more than 400 prisoners seized and controlled a major area of the prison for eleven days.  Nine prisoners alleged to have been informants and one hostage correctional officer named Robert Vallandingham, were murdered.  Following […]

  • Racist Rage: Islamophobia, the Tea Party, and Endless War

    We are witnessing an unprecedented surge in racism against Muslims in the US.  There is a real fear among US Muslims that if there’s a successful terrorist attack on Americans, particularly on US soil, we will surely face pogroms and detention centers.  The growth of the Far Right and, more specifically, the Tea Party over […]

  • An Attack on Children and the Constitution: State Legislators Announce Attempt to Subvert 14th Amendment and Deny Birth Citizenship

    January 5, 2011 Dismissing the U.S. Constitution and its core American values, politicians from 14 states touted proposals to subvert the 14th Amendment by denying newborn children of immigrants U.S. citizenship and the documentation needed to prove citizenship.  Below is a statement from Linton Joaquin, general counsel of the National Immigration Law Center: Today’s announcement […]

  • Moral Hazards, Moral Buzzards

      Is it a good idea to let the foreclosures roll on?  A lot more than that, say the banking and mortgage industries, among others.  “Home repo” is critical to economic recovery, they argue.  Stopping foreclosures would cut the legs off a still-wobbly rebound.  In the industry’s view, the fewer foreclosures, the fewer resales; the […]

  • The War Party Pushes Obama for Even More Iran Sanctions

    The first issue of The Weekly Standard for 2011 includes an article by Reuel Marc Gerecht and Mark Dubowitz, entitled “The Logic of Our Iran Sanctions: Accelerate Them Now.”  Gerecht and Dubowitz are both affiliated with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and are prominent voices in neoconservative circles focused on Iran.  We highlight their […]

  • Attacking Public Employees: Will New York Lead?

    As in other states, New York’s new governor has focused attention on the state’s budget woes: revenues insufficient to cover expenditures.  His major response has been to blame public employees and their unions as if their pay, benefits, and especially pensions were chief causes of the problem.  He loudly demands they “share the burden” of […]

  • They Don’t Make Them Like They Used To! Why Even the Best Post-war Economist Ended Up a Tragic Figure

    The Crash of 2008 and its ghastly aftermath was not just an economic crisis but also a crisis aided and abetted by economics. Previously I have written about the Econobubble (the handmaiden of the “real” Bubble) and the toxic theories of economists who were very recently rewarded with the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics.  Following […]

  • Contrary to the New York Times’ Assertion, Japan Does Not “Face a Looming Demographic Squeeze”

    Note that the labor force participation rate of women in Japan is a mere 48.5 percent, much lower than the 72.0 percent rate for men, a fact disregarded by both the New York Times and Dean Baker. — Ed. For some reason the New York Times wants to scare its readers about Japan’s economic situation, […]

  • Sago Mine Disaster

    Five years ago today, an explosion rocked the Sago mine in Upshur County, West Virginia.  Twelve miners died; miners’ families were led on a horrific emotional roller-coaster ride during which they were told that their trapped fathers, husbands, brothers, uncles, and in-laws had been found alive (only to find out, hours later, that only one […]

  • Vital Space

    Dear Friends, On this New Year’s Day we are launching Vital Space — an NGO and website that intends to cast an artistic eye on the great issues of our troubled age. Instead of another empty New Year’s resolution, we decided to take the initiative of creating a platform from which we can all (you, […]

  • Morales Repeals Decree Raising Fuel Prices

    Bolivian President Evo Morales repealed on Friday night the decree issued five days ago to raise gasoline prices, after a meeting with his cabinet, trade unions, and social organizations in La Paz.

  • To Private Manning

    To Private Manning, sent to jail for exposing war criminals. . . . Eneko Las Heras, born in Caracas in 1963, is a cartoonist based in Spain.  This cartoon was first published on his blog . . . Y sin embargo se mueve on 27 October 2010.  Translation by Yoshie Furuhashi (@yoshiefuruhashi | yoshie.furuhashi [at] […]

  • Bolivia Raises Fuel Prices to Protect Economy and Stop Subsidizing Smugglers

      The Bolivian government approved on Sunday a decree to bring fuel prices in line with regional prices, “to protect the economy and stop subsidizing smugglers,” which adjusts gasoline and diesel prices while keeping frozen the prices of liquefied petroleum gas and vehicular natural gas. At a press conference, Vice President Álvaro García Linera, temporarily […]

  • WMG, Motorola, and YouTube: Censoring Palestinian Solidarity Flash Mob Video

      December 22, 2010 Dancing and singing to a parody of Lady Gaga and Beyoncé’s “Telephone,” more than forty members and friends of the St Louis Palestine Solidarity Committee (STL-PSC) serenaded holiday shoppers at Best Buy and AT&T stores in Brentwood, MO.  They urged patrons to join the boycott of Motorola products because of the […]

  • The President and the Climate: Reflections on Progressive Obama Delusion and a Curious Line in Bill McKibben’s Eaarth

      Just what did Barack Obama and his spinners do to the critical faculties of so many leading American progressives?  Some of my regular readers might be surprised to know that I often bring a significant measure of disinclination to my recurrent radical criticism of President Barack Obama and his “progressive” defenders.  The reluctance stems […]