The right-wing Tea Party “movement” has recently grabbed attention in the dominant media again. On Tax Day last April, it garnered headlines by rolling out its standard high-decibel complaints against “big government,” deficits, taxes, and the supposed “radical” agenda of “Obama, Pelosi, and Reid” and the rest of the Democratic Party. As usual, the Tea […]
Subjects Archives: Inequality
An Open Letter of Reconciliation and Responsibility to the Iraqi People
Two former soldiers from the Army unit responsible for the Wikileaks “Collateral Murder” incident have written an open letter of “Reconciliation and Responsibility” to those injured in the July 2007 attack, in which US forces wounded two children and killed over a dozen people, including the father of those children and two Reuters employees. […]
Transgender Community in New Orleans Fights Police Harassment
New Orleans’ Black and transgender community members and advocates complain of rampant and systemic harassment and discrimination from the city’s police force, including sexual violence and arrest without cause. Activists hope that public outrage at recent revelations of widespread police violence and corruption offer an opportunity to make changes in police behavior and practice. On […]
Cuban Prisoners, Here and There
For more than half a century Western political leaders and their corporate media have waged a disinformation war against socialist Cuba. Nor is there any sign that they are easing up. A recent example is the case of Orlando Zapata Tamayo, an inmate who died in a Cuban prison in February 2010 after an 82-day […]
Haiti: There Is Aid, and Then There Is US Aid
EARTHQUAKE IN HAITI Soldiers Health Professionals Victims Assisted United States 10,000 550 871 Cuba 0 1,504 227,143 Source: Comparative figures of contribution to health in Haiti, as of 23 March 2010, based on Emily J. Kirk and John Kirk, “Cuban Medical Aid to Haiti” (CounterPunch, 1 April 2010) / Emily J. Kirk and John […]
Iran: Sanctions Will Fail — Then What?
Listen to the Interview: Flynt Leverett: I think that the Nuclear Posture Review that came out earlier this week needs to be seen as a very imperfect and, in some important respects, very badly flawed product of an effort which originally had, I think, a very positive intention, namely, an intention on the part […]
Why Are American Jewish Groups So Intent on Defending Illegal Israeli Settlements and Other Human Rights Violations?
A coalition of nearly 20 Jewish groups, ranging from the right-wing David Project and the Jewish National Fund to the liberal J Street, is distributing a misleading statement condemning a Student Senate bill at UC Berkeley. The ground-breaking bill calls for divestment from companies that profit from the perpetuation of the Israeli military occupation […]
Thailand: Human Rights Commission Says Force Justified against Peaceful Protests
Dr Tajing Siripanit, a commissioner from the Thai National Human Rights Commission, stated on NBT television at 13.30 on 4th April 2010 that the military-backed government “would be justified in using force” against the peaceful pro-democracy Red Shirt protestors “because they were disrupting shopping” in the centre of Bangkok. In fact, the Red Shirts are […]
United States vs. Human Rights
This cartoon was published by Vos el Soberano on 6 April 2010. | | Print
Is Humanity Too Stupid to Deal with Climate Change?
On 29 March, the Guardian‘s Leo Hickman had an article published covering a recent interview he’d had with noted British Earth scientist James Lovelock. Entitled “James Lovelock: Humans Are Too Stupid to Prevent Climate Change,” the article quotes the 90-year old Lovelock as making the following assertion: “I don’t think we’re yet evolved to […]
Teach-in on Political Prisoners
Tuesday, April 6 at 5:00 to 7:00 pm at the Riverside Church, Room 9T 490 Riverside Drive (between 120th Street and 122nd Street) entrance at Claremont Ave. & 121st Street The James Earl Chaney Foundation, the Social Justice Ministry of the Riverside Church, and the National Coalition for Prisoners of Political Conscience, invite you to […]
Health-Insurance Coverage Rates for US Workers, 1979-2008
The share of workers with health insurance fell from 93.5 percent in 1979 to 83.3 percent in 2008. If health-insurance rates in 2008 had remained at their 1979 levels, an additional 12.6 million workers would have had health insurance in 2008. The main reason for the decline in overall coverage rates was the steep drop […]
Pushing Human Rights in Iran
Iraj Yamin Esfandiary is a painter, designer, and cartoonist from Iran. This cartoon was first published in Iranian.com on 25 March 2010; it is reproduced here for non-profit educational purposes. Click here to see other cartoons by Esfandiary. | | Print
“Boons” for Business: The Real Victors behind Market-Driven Health Care Reform
In a 219-212 vote this week, the House of Representatives approved, and President Barack Obama signed into law, a new round of national health care reform. The bill is the subject of celebration in the liberal corporate press, with the editors at the New York Times framing it as “a triumph for countless Americans who […]
Immigration Update: The Fall of the Great Wall of Boeing
On March 16, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced that she was cutting millions of dollars from SBInet, a high-tech “virtual fence” that Boeing Co. has been developing for use along the U.S. border with Mexico. Her announcement came just two days before the United States Government Accountability Office (GAO) was scheduled to issue a […]
How Did the Democrats Pass a Republican Health Care Bill? My Response to E.J. Dionne
“Here is the ultimate paradox of the Great Health Care Showdown: Congress will divide along partisan lines to pass a Republican version of health care reform, and Republicans will vote against it.” — E.J. Dionne, 20 March 2010 Here is where the true beauty of the two-party capitalist political system kicks in. Spiraling health care […]
Targeted Citizens
“My friend told me to call Israel the ’48 lands while in Gaza. Here’s one of many reasons why, and why a one-state struggle is the right(er) struggle.” — Max Ajl Targeted Citizens, written, directed, produced, and edited by Rachel Leah Jones for Adalah, surveys discrimination against Palestinian citizens in Israel. With the participation […]
ObamaCare: If This Bill Were a Step Forward, We Would Support It
If this bill were a step forward, we would support it. If we believed and evidence indicated that this bill could be “tweaked” into something better, we would support it. But this bill is a step backwards, a step away from single payer. This bill further cements the privatization of health care, further enriches […]
A Family Affair: Intergenerational Social Mobility across OECD Countries
Higher inequality is associated with lower intergenerational mobility. More progressive taxation, higher unemployment benefits, more childcare and early childhood education, and other measures that reduce inequality promote social mobility. Tracking, ability-grouping, and pushing disadvantaged students into vocational education hinder it. Poorer students have better chances of overcoming their socioeconomic backgrounds in systems where “larger […]
Honduras: The Human Rights Platform Demands an End to Violence against Peasants in Aguán
The situation of violence in Aguán is a result of an unresolved structural problem in Honduras, an expression of the necessity for profound changes in this country so that the majority of its people may enjoy their human rights fully and effectively. Since the politico-economic-military coup d’état perpetrated on 28 June 2009 against the established […]
