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 […]
Geography Archives: United States
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 […]
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 Battle against Cholera
I am taking a second, between various important analyses that are currently taking up my time, to refer to two issues that should be known to our people. The United Nations, at the instigation of the United States, the creator of poverty and chaos in the Haitian Republic, decided to send into Haiti its forces […]
IAMC Deplores Dr Binayak Sen’s Conviction
December 27, 2010 Indian American Muslim Council deplores the verdict of life imprisonment handed to Dr. Binayak Sen and expresses alarm at the judicial process which resulted in his conviction. Dr. Sen, considered as one of the most prominent Human Rights activist in India, was falsely implicated on the basis of evidence allegedly planted […]
A More Effective Imperial CEO
“We are here because some of us and our friends voted for change. What did we get? What we got was a more effective imperial CEO.” — Bruce A. Dixon of Black Agenda Report, Chicago, 16 October 2010 Video by Labor Beat (27 November 2010). For more information: <mail@laborbeat.org>; <laborbeat.org>; 312-226-3330. | Print
Obama’s Cuba Policy
The historic election of Barak Obama brought with it high expectations for a new direction in American foreign policy towards Cuba. Unfortunately, hope has turned into disappointment halfway through his first term: the President continues to miss opportunities to alter the dynamics of the consistently contentious US-Cuba relationship. While the recent discharge of political […]
Expanding US Raids in Pakistan: Interviews with Mike Ferner, Kathy Kelly, Michael Marceau, and Ann Wright
On 20 December 2010, the New York Times reported (Mark Mazzetti and Dexter Filkins, “U.S. Military Seeks to Expand Raids in Pakistan”): “Senior American military commanders in Afghanistan are pushing for an expanded campaign of Special Operations ground raids across the border into Pakistan’s tribal areas. . . . Now, American military officers appear confident […]
“Dear Afghanistan”: A New Year’s Call for Peace
While the US may be the world’s single superpower in military terms, it faces another superpower: the voices of war-weary millions who detest violence and killing. In Afghanistan, in the United States, and among the populations of countries whose governments have joined the NATO coalition, millions of people are calling for an end to war […]
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 […]
Decoding Economic Ideology
Introduction Molière’s 1670 his play, The Bourgeois Gentleman, presented before the court of Louis XIV, mocked a foolish, social-climbing merchant. In his effort to remake himself, the merchant takes lessons to help him pass as an aristocrat. In a basic lesson on language, he is both surprised and delighted to learn he had been speaking […]
Bradley Manning Suffering in Solitary Confinement
While the founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, fights his legal battles in front of the cameras (or from the palatial estate in Britain where he is under “house arrest”) the American soldier accused of releasing secret US government documents to him remains hidden from public view. Army Private Bradley Manning has spent seven months […]
Georgia Prisoners’ Demands Delivered to Sonny Perdue’s Offices in Washington, DC
On December 20, dozens of people crowded the office of Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue and the National Governors Association offices in Washington, DC, to present the governor with the demands set by prisoners in his state who had been on strike since December 9: a living wage for work, educational opportunities, decent health care, […]
Obama Plan on Indefinite Detentions
Today, the Center for Constitutional Rights issued the following statement in response to reports that the Obama Administration is preparing an Executive Order to formalize indefinite detention without charge or trial for certain unnamed Guantanamo detainees. The assertion that 48 men currently detained at Guantánamo can be held indefinitely without charge or trial confirms that […]
Europe in the World
Navid Kermani: Europe is in fact cementing its ideological borders. . . . Radical openness is an essential feature of the European project. . . . You can’t draw the borders of Europe just as you would draw the borders of a country. Europe isn’t a country — it is an idea. . . . […]
A Land Called Paradise
In December 2007, over 2,000 American Muslims were asked what they wished they could say to the world. This is what they said. Lena Khan is an independent filmmaker. Music by Kareem Salama. You can vote for this film at the Web site of Women’s Voices Now, “a not-for-profit social enterprise,” which is holding […]
Notes on Contemporary Imperialism
Phases of Imperialism Lenin dated the imperialist phase of capitalism, which he associated with monopoly capitalism, from the beginning of the twentieth century, when the process of centralization of capital had led to the emergence of monopoly in industry and among banks. The coming together (coalescence) of the capitals in these two spheres led to […]
West Sea Crisis in Korea
Contested Waters: Background to a Crisis 1. On November 23, 2010, military troops from the Republic of Korea (ROK, or South Korea) and the United States conducted war-simulation exercises, dubbed “Hoguk” [“Defend the State”], a massive joint endeavor involving 70,000 soldiers, 600 tanks, 500 warplanes, 90 helicopters, and 50 warships. It was slated to […]
Health Care as a Commodity: Reflections on the Hudson Decision
So a key part of U.S. President Barack Obama’s not-so “liberal” health insurance “reform” bill was declared “unconstitutional” last week by the right-wing federal district court judge Henry E. Hudson in Virginia. In a 42-page opinion, the justice wrote: “Neither the Supreme Court nor any federal circuit court of appeals has extended Commerce Clause powers […]
WikiLeaks Cables Show Why Washington Won’t Allow Democracy in Haiti
The polarization of the debate around WikiLeaks is pretty simple, really. Of all the governments in the world, the United States government is the greatest threat to world peace and security today. This is obvious to anyone who looks at the facts with a modicum of objectivity. The Iraq war has claimed hundreds of thousands, […]
