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Folksinger, Storyteller, Railroad Tramp Utah Phillips Dead at 73
Utah Phillips, a seminal figure in American folk music who performed extensively and tirelessly for audiences on two continents for 38 years, died Friday of congestive heart failure in Nevada City, California, a small town in the Sierra Nevada mountains where he lived for the last 21 years with his wife, Joanna Robinson, a […]
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One of the Biggest Civil Rights Cases Post-9/11 Is about to Take a Turn for the Worst
Action Alert for Sami Al-Arian As we speak, the US government is manipulating the justice system to keep the high-profile prisoner Dr. Sami Al-Arian imprisoned indefinitely. Despite having never been convicted of any crime whatsoever, and despite being an upright citizen who dedicated his life to improving America, Dr. Al-Arian has been imprisoned since […]
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In Lebanon, the Spectre of Peace
Hezbollah is the big winner in the accord on Lebanon signed in Doha, Qatar. But everyone — including Washington — is welcoming this asymmetrical compromise. Why? Hard bargaining is underway. . . .
In the Middle East, neither the worst nor the best is ever certain. But what happened in Doha, the capital of Qatar, on Wednesday, at 3 o’clock in the morning, is a historic event. The accord putting an end — for now — to the political crisis that tore Lebanon for the past eighteen months (and many more in fact) contains a tough lesson for the West: its weakened friends in Beirut had to bend themselves to the force of Hezbollah and its allies Amal, another Shi’i party, and the Christians led by Michel Aoun. The Party of God will enter the government without laying down its arms, as a minority with veto power.
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CPR for the Anti-War Movement
It is fair to say that the anti-war movement in the US is moribund. A movement that put a million people in the streets a month before the invasion of Iraq in 2003 and has drawn as many as half-a-million protesters to protests as recently as January 2007 has failed to mobilize anything even near […]
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Iran: The Evil State versus the Good People?
Marjane Satrapi’s film Persepolis must have made George Bush and his new ally Nicolas Sarokzy quite happy. After all, despite Satrapi’s rhetoric against the two leaders, her film’s core argument is one that Bush and Sarkozy have long been busy constructing: the evil state versus the wonderful people. Aesthetically, Persepolis is a refreshing and beautiful […]
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SEIU: How Democratic?
For the first time in a generation or more, SEIU is facing a substantial movement by internal dissidents seeking to push through democratic reforms. This push has a two-fold character. One prong is the very public resignation by Sal Roselli, the head of United Healthcare Workers — West (UHW), the third largest local in […]
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On the Fortuitous Poverty of Memory
On May 17, 1987, a double act of Exocet missiles skimmed through the air and slammed into the American Perry-class frigate the USS Stark. The first Exocet antiship missile punched into the warship “at 600 miles per hour and exploded in the forward crew’s quarters.” The warhead failed to detonate but managed to smash through […]
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House Excludes Countries with Ties to Iran from Debt Relief Bill
Last month, the US House of Representatives amended foreign debt relief legislation to exclude countries with “business interests with Iran.” The bill, titled the Jubilee Act for Responsible Lending and Expanded Debt Cancellation (HR 2634), is intended to provide low-income countries relief from debts owed to the United States and international financial institutions. The bill […]
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Santa Cruz Autonomy Campaign Is Lynchpin to Destroy Latin American Progress
On Sunday, May 4, 2008, I joined two dozen progressive activists marching in a circle in front of the Bolivian embassy. Thanks to our spirited presence, 150 or so right-wing Bolivians from the province of Santa Cruz were unable to get in front of the embassy to demonstrate in favor of the autonomy referendum […]
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The Opposition Takes Beirut
A few hours after yesterday’s press conference of Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, opposition fighters occupied the offices of the pro-government Future Movement of Hariri in Beirut, and battles focused on the Koraytem palace (Saad Hariri residence), which was hit by rockets, the Sérail (seat of the Siniora government), and the home of […]
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Senator Clinton, Why Are You Threatening “the Iranians”?
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton US Presidential Candidate c/o MSNBC.com Your Excellency, In one of your recent campaign interviews you stated that: “I want the Iranians to know that if I’m the president, we will attack Iran. . . . In the next 10 years, during which they might foolishly consider launching an attack on […]
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Evo’s Dilemmas
The Right respects legality only when legality favors it. The history of our America has shown that a thousand times. The confrontation that is convulsing Bolivia today is no exception. The Santa Cruz autonomy referendum is just the tip of the iceberg. To limit the debate to a question of legal pettifoggery would be a […]
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Testimony of Marjorie Cohn before the Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties
House Judiciary Committee May 6, 2008 2141 Rayburn House Office Building Washington, D.C. From the Department of Justice to Guantánamo Bay: Administration Lawyers and Administration Interrogation Rules Marjorie Cohn, President, National Lawyers Guild Professor, Thomas Jefferson School of Law What does [the prohibition of] torture have in common with [that of] genocide, slavery, and wars […]
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Standardizing Learning: Rethinking a Policy of One-Size-Fits-All
Daily in countless classrooms across the U.S., teachers are using standardized curriculum to prepare their students to take and score highly on high-stakes achievement tests. But critics say forcing K-12 schools to follow a single standard of education is no cure-all. In fact, such an approach places students and teachers into a historic trend of […]
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Why We Demonstrated in Dearborn
See, also, Stephanie Luce, “Rebuilding Labor’s Power: There Are No Shortcuts,” MRZine, 2 May 2008. I feel sorry for Stephanie Luce and I don’t even know her. As I read her piece, dated April 22, “The Future of the Labor Movement? Reflections on the Labor Notes Conference,” I was surprised to learn that she […]
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Preparing for War with Iran?
As Israel prepares to celebrate its 60th anniversary, the weak and internally divided government of Ehud Olmert persists in pursuing counterproductive policies detached from all regional and global realities except the guaranteed support of the United States. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice soldiers on in her starring role keeping the theatrical performance known as “the […]
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NYC Marijuana Possession Arrests Skyrocket, Illustrate NYPD Racial Bias, New Report Shows
April 29, 2008 — The NYPD arrested and jailed nearly 400,000 people for possessing small amounts of marijuana between 1997 and 2007, a tenfold increase in marijuana arrests over the previous decade and a figure marked by startling racial and gender disparities, according to a report released Tuesday at the New York Civil Liberties […]
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China Still a Small Player in Africa
“What I find a bit reprehensible is the tendency of certain Western voices to . . . raising concerns about China’s attempt to get into the African market because it is a bit hypocritical for Western states to be concerned about how China is approaching Africa when they have had centuries of relations with Africa, […]
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Oil Windfall Sparks Rights Fight in Iran
From a distance, partisan politics in Iran may appear to turn on international challenges or internal discriminations only. But a third contentious split that reaches the highest levels is about the size of the government financed largely by oil exports. At its core, the dispute over whether public sector payroll, subsidies, and social programs deserve […]
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Rebuke Clinton for Threatening to “Totally Obliterate” Iran
On Tuesday, the same day as the Pennsylvania primary, Senator Hillary Clinton promised to “totally obliterate” Iran should Tehran develop a nuclear weapon and use it against Israel. Her comments, which were aired on Good Morning America, come at a time of increasing tensions between the US and Iran amidst allegations of Iran’s involvement […]