Chutzpah (chutz·pah): noun. Supreme self-confidence: nerve, gall. Synonyms: see temerity. Example: Agriprocessors is asking the United States Supreme Court to overturn a vote to unionize at its Brooklyn distribution center. “In September 2005, the company’s Brooklyn employees voted 15 to 5 to unionize. . . . Days after the vote, Agriprocessors stunned its employees by […]
Geography Archives: United States
Keeping Hope for War Alive: Poll by “The Israel Project” on War with Iran
Washington, DC – A poll commissioned by The Israel Project, an international non-profit formed to present a “more positive public face” for Israel, has found a strikingly large percentage of Americans view Iran as a major threat, leading them to support possible military action. Serious questions remain however about the validity of the results due […]
Israel Must Rein in Settler Movement, Protect Palestinian Children
I left my home in the United States to spend the summer in the West Bank, where I was attacked by Israeli settlers late last month. As a member of the Christian Peacemaker Team, I went to the South Hebron Hills to help keep young Palestinian children safe from Israeli settlers intent on hurting […]
Israel Turns Gaza into Prison for UConn Fulbright Scholar
As a Palestinian from the Gaza Strip, I could not have been more proud to learn last June that I had earned a prestigious Fulbright Scholarship to study in the United States. As a child, I would wonder how televisions, computers, and washing machines actually worked. I took this fascination to the Islamic University of […]
Can SEIU Members Exorcize the Purple Shades of Jackie Presser?
Thousands of SEIU members are expected in San Jose this Saturday, September 6, to protest spreading corruption and Andy Stern’s latest grab for control over SEIU’s third largest local (which has helped blow the whistle on scandalous behavior elsewhere in the union). The rally is being organized by United Healthcare Workers (UHW) and allied […]
Can NATO Survive Georgia?
Amidst all the journalistic brouhaha about a new cold war, most analysts are missing out on the real crisis that has been crystallized by Saakashvili’s imprudent excursion into South Ossetia. The very existence of NATO has been put into question. To understand that, we have to go back to the beginning of NATO as an […]
Are Industrial Unions Better than Craft? Not Always.
Which is better — craft unions or industrial unions? The debate is as old as the labor movement itself, and one that resists simple answers. Craft unions organize workers along occupational lines. Industrial unions join everyone who works for one employer, or one industry, into one union. The argument surfaces in the dispute between […]
Would Jesus Ride a Donkey or Elephant to the Conventions?
As the election draws closer, we will hear more and more about the politics of Jesus, as liberals and conservatives jockey to place the shining halo of Christianity over their own heads. Without saying it, they will imply, “Jesus would have voted for me!” Putting aside for a moment the rudeness of regularly forcing […]
The Return of Russia
The question of responsibility for the conflict in the Caucasus didn’t trouble us for long. Less than a week after the Georgian attack, two French commentators, experts on all things, pronounced it “obsolete.” An influential American neo-conservative had set the tone for them. Knowing who started the conflict is “not very important,” Robert Kagan […]
Faculty Resist Raising Funds for Endowed Chair Named after “Good-time Charlie” Wilson
When University of Texas faculty members opened the local Austin newspaper in mid-August, many were surprised to read that that their institution was raising funds for an endowed chair to honor Charlie Wilson, described charitably by the paper as “the fun-loving, hard-living former East Texas congressman portrayed by Tom Hanks in last year’s ‘Charlie Wilson’s […]
The Only Good Muslim Is the Anti-Muslim: Liberals’ Fear of Islam
For some, Barack Obama’s stature as a man of the Left has fallen precipitously, like late autumn leaves shed by branches bowing to the will of winter. Disappointment has often been self-inflicted. Supporters have dipped their pens deeply into the inkwell of Obama’s inspiring story and written their own lines on Afghanistan, oil drilling, or […]
Israel’s Outposts Seal Death of Palestinian State
Yehudit Genud hardly feels she is on the frontier of Israel’s settlement project, although the huddle of mobile homes on a wind-swept West Bank hilltop she calls home is controversial even by Israeli standards. Despite the size and isolation of Migron, a settlement of about 45 religious families on a ridge next to the Palestinian […]
Food and Neoliberalism in South Africa: Entrenching the Legacy of Apartheid
Statistically, South Africa produces enough food to feed its entire population, and in most years it is even a net exporter of food.1 There is, therefore, not a shortage of food in South Africa. Yet if you walk through the streets of any township or rural village in the country, you will find hungry people […]
Blocking a Gazan’s Path to San Diego
As a young Palestinian from Gaza, I had been eagerly anticipating the opportunity to study at the University of California San Diego on a Fulbright scholarship. The chance to escape Gaza’s confines and immerse myself in an American education was deeply thrilling. With Israel controlling Gaza’s border exits, air space and sea access — […]
How Globalization Works: Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Texas (TMMTX) — A Case Study
Modern economic class struggle, the unremitting, sometimes hidden, sometimes open, fight between capitalists and workers that erupted in the 19th century and dominated the 20th, is taking on new forms and dimensions in the 21st century. The stakes of this continuing conflict are higher than they have ever been. Every aspect of human life on […]
Geopolitical Chess: Background to a Mini-war in the Caucasus
The world has been witness this month to a mini-war in the Caucasus, and the rhetoric has been passionate, if largely irrelevant. Geopolitics is a gigantic series of two-player chess games, in which the players seek positional advantage. In these games, it is crucial to know the current rules that govern the moves. Knights are […]
Uruguayan Writer Eduardo Galeano Apologizes for the War That Devastated Paraguay
Asunción, 15 August (EFE) — Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano today publicly apologized to Paraguayans for the war that his country, allied with Argentina and Brazil, fought against Paraguay between 1865 and 1870. “Let me take this opportunity to apologize as an Uruguayan, because that [imperialist] punishment [for the crime of protecting the workers and products […]
The Bottom of the Barrel: A Review of Paul Collier’s The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries Are Failing and What Can Be Done about It
Summary Paul Collier, in an attempt to bring development economics to a wider audience, has written a book that departs from what he calls the “grim apparatus of professional scholarship.” The result is a book that is almost entirely unverifiable. What is verifiable turns out to be an elaborate fiction. Collier’s thesis is based upon […]
Iron Man
Hailed as a subversive action flick for its portrayal of weapons industry corruption, Iron Man is a disappointing techno-imperialist fantasy, but its special effects will keep die-hard gadget fetishists on the edge of their seats. Based on Marvel’s successful Cold War-era comic book, Iron Man tells the story of American überman Tony Stark (Robert […]
Cannon Fodder for the Market
Perhaps some governments are unaware of the concrete facts, and so for that reason Raúl’s message setting Cuba’s position seemed to us to be very timely. I shall be generous in the aspects that cannot be dealt with in a brief and precise official statement. The government of Georgia would never have launched its armed […]
