31 December, 2006
Saddam
Becomes A Martyr Of
Imperialist Resistance
By Karthika Thampan
If Saddam's execution was a warning sent out to
the empire, what the empire got was a martyr who perhaps could inspire
thousands of youngsters to rise up and act. And when they act, will
that be the way the empire expect?
Saddam At
The End Of A Rope
By Tariq Ali
Saddam's hanging might send a shiver through the
collective, if artificial, spine of the Arab ruling elites. If Saddam
can be hanged, so can Mubarak, or the Hashemite joker in Amman or the
Saudi royals, as long as those who topple them are happy to play ball
with Washington
And The Empire
Mourned….
By Jason Miller
So in the wake of the United States’ recent
facilitation of Saddam Hussein’s hanging, we in the self-proclaimed
“bastion of human rights” are in the midst of six days of
mourning for a man would have swung from the gallows long ago had he
been judged by the same standards as Saddam
The Execution
Of Saddam Hussein
By World Socialist Web
The execution of former Iraqi president Saddam
Hussein serves not justice, but the political purposes of the Bush administration
and its Iraqi stooges. The manner in which the execution was carried
out—hurriedly, secretively, in the dark of night, in a mockery
of any semblance of legal process—only underscores the lawless
and reactionary character of the entire American enterprise in Iraq
A dictator
Created Then Destroyed By America
By Robert Fisk
But history will record that the Arabs and other
Muslims and, indeed, many millions in the West, will ask another question
this weekend, a question that will not be posed in other Western newspapers
because it is not the narrative laid down for us by our presidents and
prime ministers - what about the other guilty men
Saddam
Hussein - R.I.P.
By David Caputo
Saddam Hussein is dead, along with another sixty
six other Iraqis, six American GIs, and a Brit from the Duke of Lancaster's
Regiment. And that's just today. What do we do tomorrow? I've got a
suggestion... Leave
Storm Rages
Over Trial, Sentence
By Olivia Ward
Human rights advocates say process that saw three
lawyers murdered amounted to a travesty of justice
Former
Longtime Confidant Accuses Ariel Sharon Of
Assassinating Yasser Arafat
By Stephen Lendman
Longtime and now recently deceased confidant to
former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Uri Dan, published a book
in France that may have been his 2006 one titled Ariel Sharon: An Intimate
Portrait in which he accused the former prime minister of assassinating
Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat by poisoning him
Vast Ice
Shelf Collapses In The Arctic
By Michael McCarthy
A vast ice shelf in the Canadian Arctic has broken
up, a further sign of the astonishing rate at which polar ice is now
melting because of global warming
In
Gaza: Democracy And Its Discontents
By Ramzy Baroud
What is taking place in the Occupied Territories,
particularly in the Gaza Strip has much less to do with inter-factional
rivalries and a lot more with regional and international power plays,
in which some foolhardy Palestinians decided to involve themselves for
the sake of maintaining personal and factional gains
30 December, 2006
End
Of Another Year
By Baghdad Burning
Here we come to the end of 2006 and I am sad. Not
simply sad for the state of the country, but for the state of our humanity,
as Iraqis. We've all lost some of the compassion and civility that I
felt made us special four years ago
More Troops
But Less Control In Iraq
By Dahr Jamail & Ali Al-Fadhily
Through the occupation, each time the U.S. has
increased troop levels, there has been a corresponding increase in attacks
on the forces, and consequently an increase in civilian casualties.
Or, troop levels have been increased in response to rising attacks.
By either pattern, next year could get much worse
Americans
Want A Rapid Exit From Iraq But
Elected Leaders Aren’t Even Considering It
By Kevin Zeese
Ending the occupation will reduce violence, immediately
save more than $100 billion and respect the wishes of the American people.
Why is Washington, DC ignoring the obvious?
War And
USA
By David Truskoff
Christian Americans are the most war like people
this planet has ever produced
Dire Warnings
From China's First
Climate Change Report
By AFP
Temperatures in China will rise significantly in
coming decades and water shortages will worsen, state media has reported,
citing the government's first national assessment of global climate
change
US-Backed
UN Resolution Heightens
Tensions With Iran
By Peter Symonds
Months after the expiry of a UN deadline for Iran
to suspend its nuclear programs, the US finally pushed a resolution
through the UN Security Council on Saturday imposing a series of sanctions
on Tehran. While the resolution represents a compromise, there is no
doubt that the Bush administration will exploit it to the hilt to fuel
tensions with Iran
Headline
Singur
By Amitadyuti Kumar
Singur is now at a crossroads. Will it be able
to set an example before the people of West Bengal or India? Singur
may or may not be victorious. But it has sent its message loud and clear
to the rest of the country. It is that those who consider India or West
Bengal as the safe haven for the imperialists or their followers will
have to think again
“Bush’s
Use Of Pardons Isn’t Very Compassionate"
By Gene C. Gerard
To date President Bush has issued 113 pardons and
three commutations. That’s less than any two-term president in
the modern era. In fact, you have to go back to George Washington to
find a president who served two-terms and made fewer acts of clemency
P.K. Mahanandia:
Salute To A Living Legend
By Vidya Bhushan Rawat
A Dalit as India's cultural Ambassador in Europe
Democracy
And Reinforced Building
By Amit Chamaria
Almost 90% of decision- makers in the English language
print media and 79% in television are of the upper caste, although the
upper castes are about 16% of the country population; Brahmin alone
constitute 49% of this segment, and 71% of the total are upper caste
men
28 December, 2006
A
Look Back And Ahead In An Age Of
Neocon Rule
By Stephen Lendman
It's time to pause at year's end to give thanks
for our blessings but reflect that the spirit of the season demands
that the madness of Bush neocon rule be stopped and ended before it's
too late
Will Stinky
Cut The Big One
By Sheila Samples
Bush is a brutal, pathological liar -- arguably
a homicidal maniac. After losing two wars against helpless, unarmed
nations, he's bored. The Decider is moving on to greater things, and
those who know how to listen to him know the decision to nuke Iran has
already been made. Before he leaves office, Bush plans to spread the
same freedoms throughout Iran that Iraq is presently enjoying. Will
Stinky cut the big one on his way out?
Is There
a Sunni Majority In Iraq?
By Dal LaMagna
In the two articles below Dal LaMagna, the founder
of Progressive Government, and Faruq Ziada, a former Iraqi Ambassador,
raise the question of whether there is really a Sunni majority population
in Iraq
When Iraqis
Gave Up On Government
By Dahr Jamail & Ali Al-Fadhily
The Iraqi government headed by Prime Minister Noori
al-Maliki, like earlier governments assigned by U.S. occupation authorities
in Iraq, appears to have killed Iraqi dreams of a brighter future
Children
Pick Their Christmas Toys
By Dahr Jamail and Ali Al-Fadhily
Ahmed Ghazi has little
reason to stock Christmas toys at his shop in Fallujah. He knows what
children want these days."It is best for us to import toys such
as guns and tanks because they are most saleable in Iraq to little boys,"
Ghazi told IPS. "Children try to imitate what they see out of their
windows."
Troubles In
The Horn Of Africa
By Solomon Gebreselassie
In the last two weeks, a war has been raging between
Ethiopia and Somalia's Islamist forces. The much-hated Ethiopian regime
is devising a way to endear itself to US policy makers who are cocerned
on the possibility of Somalia being a haven for Islamist radicals. The
Ethiooian regime is ready to do the US's bidding and it has already
started bombing peaceful Somali citizens under the veneer of defeating
the Ismaists
The
Great Game On A Razor's Edge
By M K Bhadrakumar
The accidental killing of Alexander Ivanov, a Kyrgyz
fuel-truck driver, by Corporal Zachary Hatfield, a US serviceman, at
the Manas Air Base on the outskirts of the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek in
December is threatening to snowball into a first-rate crisis for the
United States' regional policy in Central Asia
There Was
Once An Old Tehri Town
By Harsh Dobhal
Despite three decades of local concerns, international
criticism and governmental investigation, as the Tehri dam finally starts
producing electricity and drinking water reaches distant Delhi, the
most pressing questions have gone unanswered
IGNOU, RTI
And The Distant Dream Of
Women's Empowerment
By B Rahul
Analysis of the latest data made available by the
Indira Gandhi National Open University, New Delhi (IGNOU) in response
to an application made under the Right to Information Act reveals that
the average number of female students freshly enrolled each year in
the Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree programme in the seven years from 1996
to 2002 was 17146 which is 65% of the total. The average number of female
students per year over the same period who had successfully completed
the course and been awarded the BA degree was a miniscule 440
26 December, 2006
Historical
Perspectives On Latin American
And East Asian Regional Development
By Noam Chomsky
The South American leaders agreed to create a high-level
commission to study the idea of forming a continent-wide community similar
to the European Union. This is the presidents and envoys of major nations,
and there was the two-day summit of what's called the South American
Community of Nations, hosted by Evo Morales in Cochabamba, the president
of Bolivia
Banality And Barefaced
Lies
By Robert Fisk
Here in America, I stare at the land in which I
live and see a landscape I do not recognise
Pre-empting
Arab Mediation
In Palestinian Divide
By Nicola Nasser
The U.S administration and Israel are accelerating
their coordinated meddling in the internal Palestinian divide between
the Fatah-led presidency and the Hamas-led government to pre-empt a
series of Arab mediation efforts, the latest of which is a UAE-Syrian
try according to a member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine
Liberation Organization
“Stephen
Lendman Sounds Off”
By Jason Miller & Stephen Lendman
Despite his relatively recent start, Stephen Lendman
has rapidly become one of the most ubiquitous and well-respected chroniclers
of truth in the alternative media community.Here is a glimpse of Stephen
and his worldview
Arroyo/U.S.
"Low Intensity" State Terrorism
By Brian McAfee
Philippine President Gloria Macapagati Arroyo's
Melo Commission to investigate the killings of leftists and journalists
has apparantly concluded that investigation and will submit their report
in early January.Most in the Phillippines believe the Melo Commission
and its upcoming report to be part of an ongoing ruse by the Arroyo
government to cover up that the government itself, in colusion with
the military and state police are the actual perpetrators of the mass
killings
When It
Became Their Fault
By Joseph Grosso
One of the more vulgar turns discourse over Iraq
has taken over the past year is the bi-partisan, self-righteous way
the bloody debacle is blamed almost entirely on the Iraqi people. The
near universal sentiment, from California democrat Barbara Boxer to
neocon Charles Krauthammer, is one of ungrateful, incapable Iraqis spurning
generous American assistance
Iran And
North Korea Standoff:
US policy On NPT Is In Tatters
By Abid Mustafa
The US has not only failed to curb the nuclear
ambitions of Iran and North Korea, but has also made the world a dangerous
place to live in. By signing a nuclear deal with India in violation
of the NPT and not lifting a finger to reign in Israel's atomic weapons,
more and more countries will follow Iran and North Korea in a bid to
nuclearize. Thanks to the Bush administration, America now stands on
the verge of becoming the worlds biggest proliferate of nuclear technology
Pakistan
Diary: Day 2–In Lahore
By Yoginder Sikand
An Indian travles through Pakistan
More Horrifying
Than Tsunami:
The Ground Beneath The Waves
The HRLN Report
It has been two years since the tsunami washed
over the Andaman & Nicobar Islands and destroyed the homes and livelihoods
of its residents. Although the government made a lot of promises, and
spent a lot of taxpayer’s money, very little actual relief and
rehabilitation work has been done. Most islanders are still waiting
for compensation
24 December, 2006
What
Would HappenIf The Virgin Mary
Came To Bethlehem Today?
By Johann Hari
Fadia Jemal is a gap-toothed 27-year-old with a
weary, watery smile. "What would happen if the Virgin Mary came
to Bethlehem today? She would endure what I have endured"
Middle East
Peace Process: Stagnation By Design
By Ramzy Baroud
Amid this deliberate stagnation, the Palestinian
people are left with no option but to revolt, as costly and uncertain
as it has been throughout the years. Thus, it must be stated that Palestinian
resistance, which for the most part has been a nonviolent and popular
movement, shall continue as long as the circumstances that contributed
to its commencement remain in place
Iraqi Hopes
Dim Through
Worst Year Of Occupation
By Dahr Jamail & Ali Al-Fadhily
Despite promises from Iraqi and U.S. leaders that
2006 would bring improvement, Iraqis have suffered through the worst
year in living memory, facing violence, fragmentation and a disintegrated
economy
In Defence Of
Ram
By Farzana Versey
How many cases from the rural areas come before
the courts, forget them being re-opened? How many from the slums? Let
us apply similar, if not the same, standards for people across the board
Hitler The Trendy
Tyrant
By Kim Barker
German dictator no pariah to some in India.In Gujarat,
textbooks have praised Hitler's leadership abilities, fascism and the
Nazi movement. Until recently, state social studies textbooks have featured
chapters on "Hitler, the Supremo" and "Internal Achievements
of Nazism." The textbooks have been changed slightly this year
but still barely mention the Holocaust
Oceans Warming
And Rising
By Julio Godoy
Ocean levels will rise faster than expected if
greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise, a leading German researcher
warns
23 December, 2006
Apartheid
In The Holy Land
By Desmond Tutu
I've been very deeply distressed in my visit to
the Holy Land; it reminded me so much of what happened to us black people
in South Africa. I have seen the humiliation of the Palestinians at
checkpoints and roadblocks, suffering like us when young white police
officers prevented us from moving about
The Birth Of
An Empire
By Rosa Mariam Elizalde
An Interview with Gore Vidal
How Breaches
In The US Nuclear-Weapons
Program Endanger You
By Heather Wokusch
Last week, the watchdog Project on Government Oversight
reported that workers at Pantex, a Texan nuclear-weapons plant, had
almost accidentally detonated a W56 warhead in the spring of 2005. A
W56 has 100 times the Hiroshima bomb's yield
Power
Struggle In Saudi Arabia:
A Sign Of Regional Instability
By Peter Symonds
The abrupt resignation of Saudi Arabia’s
ambassador to the US, Prince Turki al-Faisal, last week is one more
sign of a power struggle underway in Riyadh. While factional intrigues
in the Saudi royal family are undoubtedly involved, the overriding factor
is the deepening instability throughout the Middle East being fuelled
by the aggressive intervention of the US, above all in Iraq
New German
Community Models Car-Free Living
By Isabelle de Pommereau
Welcome to Germany's best-known environmentally
friendly neighborhood and a successful experiment in green urban living.
The Vauban development - 2,000 new homes on a former military base 10
minutes by bike from the heart of Freiburg - has put into practice many
ideas that were once dismissed as eco-fantasy but which are now moving
to the center of public policy
Cannon
Fodder In Christmas’ Times
By Gabriele Zamparini
Those who have their sons and daughters in Iraq
and Afghanistan should read A letter to an American G.I. written by
an Iraqi woman. This letter would be the most important Christmas gift
for your children. Send it to them!
Court Allows
Eli Lilly To Bury Zyprexa Documents
By Evelyn Pringle
Alaskan attorney, Jim Gottstein, says that after
being served with a mandatory injunction, he has returned the internal
Eli Lilly documents that he obtained in litigation and provided to the
New York Times to the court
US Encourages
The Talibanisation Of Afghanistan
By Abid Mustafa
Hamid Karzai has accused Pakistan of spurring
the Taliban to carry out attacks against his fledgling government and
the NATO troops that defend it. Oddly enough, the Whitehouse instead
of holding Islamabad to account has thrown its weight behind the Pakistani
government.Washington's ambivalent attitude raises the question; is
America encouraging the emergence of Taliban as a way of extricating
itself from Afghanistan?
Shame, Not In
Doha But In India
By Vidya Bhushan Rawat
I hope that India will grow simultaneously with
diversity and dissent in the coming years. How can a nation and a society
grow with such scandalous officials and reporters who criminalise the
sexual deformity of a person and whose fight for people's right confine
to the cases of certain high profile cases of page three parties, and
who continue to ignore the bigger issues of dissent and disgust in India
and whose ignorant reporters can simply call these dissenters as terrorists
or Naxalites
Kulhand,
Doda: Eight Months After The Massacre
By Yoginder Sikand
Eight months ago unidentified gunmen shot dead
almost two dozen Hindus in Kulhand, in Kashmir's Doda district. Months
after the carnage, the survivors now struggle to rebuild their lives,
with little help forthcoming from the state
22 December, 2006
Climate
Change vs Mother Nature
By Geneviève Roberts
Bears have stopped hibernating in the mountains
of northern Spain, scientists revealed yesterday, in what may be one
of the strongest signals yet of how much climate change is affecting
the natural world
A shock
To The Ancient Rhythms
Of The Natural World
By Michael McCarthy
Animals that hibernate in winter abandoning hibernation:
yet another signal that something momentous is happening to the rhythms
of the natural world, in the way in which we have always understood
them
Breaking The
News
By Arundhati Roy
The official version of the story of the parliament
attack is very quickly coming apart at the seams. Even the supreme court
judgment, with all its flaws of logic and leaps of faith, does not accuse
Afzal of being the mastermind of the attack. So who was the mastermind?
If Afzal is hanged, we may never know. But L.K. Advani, the leader of
the opposition, wants him hanged at once. Even a day’s delay,
he says, is against the national interest. Why? What is the hurry?
Jimmy
Carter's Apartheid Charge Rings True
By Saree Makdisi
Former President Jimmy Carter has come under sustained
attack for having dared to use the term "apartheid" to describe
Israel's policies in the West Bank. However, not one of Carter's critics
has offered a convincing argument to justify the vehemence of the outcry,
much less to refute his central claim that Israel bestows rights on
Jewish residents settling illegally on Palestinian land, while denying
the same rights to the indigenous Palestinians
U.S. Government
And Islamophobia
By M. A. Muqtedar Khan
U.S. Government and American Muslims engage to
define Islamophobia
The Ershad Factor
By Taj Hashmi
Elusive democracy and pervasive chaos in Bangladesh
All Roads
Lead To Singur In Buddha’s Bengal
By Dipankar Bhattacharya
Is there at all any case for a debate and agitation
over Singur? The Communist Party Of India (Marxist)(CPI(M)) leadership
would like us to believe there is absolutely none and that the people
questioning the great Singur model of industrialisation and rehabilitation
are either stupid or mad or driven by ulterior motives
Hugo Chavez
And The Rise Of Black-Indian Power
By William Lorens Katz
Chavez stands as a direct challenge to white domination
of South American governments
The Winter
Harvest Of The South Central Farmers
By Leslie Radford
With little fanfare--no celebrity visits, no circling
sheriff's helicopter--the South Central Farmers opened a community center
last week. The center is a slap in the face to two Farm opponents, developer
Ralph Horowitz and District 9 Councilmember Jan Perry, but it's only
another round in the Farmers' struggle, and that struggle only an apex
in a decades-long battle between the people and land developers in Los
Angeles
Death By Coke
By Joshua Frank
Americans are tipping the scales in record numbers,
with approximately 130 million who are presently considered overweight
or obese. Perhaps most alarmingly of all, half of all women aged 20
to 39 in the United States are included in these figures.Despite the
barrage of marketing to the contrary, sales pitches, and misinformation,
consumption of soda has been directly linked to both obesity as well
as type 2 diabetes
21 December, 2006
Palestinian
Boiling Pot
By Dr. Elias Akleh
It is cynical to notice that external powers, (Israel,
US, and UK, the enemy of Palestinians, who rejected their democratic
election, and who imposed economical siege against them) had rushed
to support “Abbas” call for early election, while most of
the Palestinian factions (including within Fatah itself) inside and
outside occupied Palestine had rejected it because they believe that
the previous election, recognized by international observers as free
and democratic, is legal
There Is
Still Another Way For Palestine
By Hasan Abu Nimah & Ali Abunimah
Hamas and all other factions committed to resisting
occupation should focus on intensified civil struggle and solidarity.
This is the best way to isolate those who would push for civil war in
order to retain their privileges and power
UK, US And
Israeli State Terrorism
And Western Holocaust Denial
By Gideon Polya
Holocaust Denial is exactly what racist, lying
Western academics, politicians and media have been guilty of in relation
to past and present Western-imposed Holocausts in Asian countries, including
India
Iraqi Women's
Bodies Are
Battlefields For War Vendettas
By Kavita N. Ramdas
Almost four years into the Bush Administration's
ill fated adventure in Iraq, Iraqi women are worse off than they were
under the Baathist regime in a country where, for decades, the freedoms
and rights enjoyed by Iraqi women were the envy of women in most other
countries of the Middle East
Darfur:
Bush And Blair Plan No-Fly Zone
And Consider Air Strikes Against Sudan
By Ann Talbot
The Bush administration is considering imposing
a no-fly zone over the Darfur region in western Sudan. It would be backed
up by the threat of air strikes, a naval blockade and an extension of
the existing sanctions regime
Chavez
Landslide Tops All In US History
By Stephen Lendman
Well almost, as explained below. Hugo Chavez Frias'
reelection on December 3 stands out when compared to the greatest landslide
presidential victories in US history
Zyprexa Cat
Out Of The Bag
By Evelyn Pringle
Documents acquired by the New York Times from attorney
Jim Gottstein show that Eli Lilly ran a "Viva Zyprexa” marketing
campaign to convince doctors to prescribe Zyprexa off-label and between
1999 and 2002, its sales doubled from $1.5 billion to $3 billion
The Decider
Can’t Decide
By Kevin Zeese
Indications are Bush is moving toward more troops,
with Democratic leadership support, now Joint Chiefs of Staff reportedly
opposes an increase in troops in Iraq. Washington, DC is confused in
the face of military defeat. It is time to face the facts and leave
Elephants
And Quagmires
By Bill Henderson
While the Bush administration, the media and nearly
all the Democrats still refuse to explain the war in Iraq in terms of
oil, the ever-pragmatic members of the Iraq Study Group share no such
reticence
How Christmas
Destroyed America
By Ed Howes
Like our first romance, our first god never leaves
us and most Americans will pass this most wonderful gift of betrayal
to their own children who will later be encouraged to kill and die to
bring Santa to the rest of the world. Let us boast to the world how
great we are, doing all things in the name of God and country
High Maternal
Mortality In The Heart Of India
By Anil Gulati
Approximately 10,000 women die every year in Madhya
Pradesh during pregnancy or within 42 days after pregnancy. Majority
of these could be prevented. Medically these deaths may be due to hemorrhage,
infection, eclampsia or unsafe abortion or any of three delays
Communalism
Or Affirmative Action
By Ram Puniyani
Had there not been the fear of backlash of RSS
combine, reservations for Muslims would be the ideal solution out of
this impasse. In the present scenario all steps short of reservations
should and need to be taken to work towards the democratic goal of equality
20 December, 2006
Climate
Change Tipping Point?
By Stephen Leahy
This was the year that most people in the U.S.
and Canada began to take climate change seriously and express hope that
their governments would take action to reduce emissions -- but it is
unclear if they will take action themselves
Eating The
Planet Like A
Bag Of Doritos For Jesus
By Phil Rockstroh
There are a few facts it is imperative we face,
immediately and unmedicated. Among them: The changes to the earth ecosystem
wrought by global warming are neither a political opinion nor are the
acts of a wrathful god in heaven, but are a dynamic of nature set in
motion by our actions -- and are wholly indifferent to the fate of mankind
Palestine
On The Brink Of Civil War?
By Nigel Parry
Since the Palestinian elections on 25 January 2006
brought a resounding Hamas victory, Fatah and its US and Israeli allies
have been working to destabilize the democratically-elected government
End Of The
Strongmen
By Jonathan Cook
Do America and Israel want the Middle East engulfed
by civil war?
Under An
Iron Fist
By Karma Nabulsi
Palestinians don't want fresh elections in the
occupied territories, but a free vote for a truly national ruling body
The Streets
Of Gaza
By Laila El-Haddad
The average person don't know what to think anymore.
They are confused and and exhausted and mostly very, very afraid.As
a friend of my mother put it today, "We don’t’ know
anymore who's right and who’s wrong, and who’s at fault
and who isn’t. And we just want it to end."
Lebanon:
War Without A Plan
By Uri Avnery
When the Israeli government decided, in the space
of a few hours, to start the Second Lebanon War, it did not have any
plan.When the Chief-of-Staff urged the cabinet to start the war, he
did not submit any plan.This was disclosed this week by a military investigation
committee
It's Either
Occupation Or Education
By Dahr Jamail & Ali al-Fadhily
Two in three children in Iraq have simply stopped
going to school, according to a government report.Iraq's Ministry of
Education says attendance rates for the new school year, which started
Sep. 20, are at an all-time low
Class War
Weapon Of Choice –
For The Holidays And All Days
By Joel S. Hirschhorn
Like any addiction, ending compulsive consumption
is difficult. By politicizing reduced consumption through boycotts,
political gains offset any “suffering” from reduced consumption.
So consider tradeoffs between less consumption and political actions
that you feel are strongly needed. Your dollars are much more powerful
than your votes
The Prophets
Didn’t Work
For The Associated Press
By David Truskoff
Many years ago, my father once told me that if
the story by- line is the Associated Press, read it with a smile because
it is usually just propaganda disguised as news. If it says, "combined
wire services," don’t bother reading it all because it is
usually just a state department handout."
Is Death Better
Than Life For
Mushahars Of Kushingar
By Vidya Bhushan Rawat
While politicians in Uttar-Pradesh are preparing
for polls, the Mushahars, Bansfors and other such marginalized communities
think of meal next day
19 December, 2006
Abbas
Attempts A Political Coup
On Behalf Of Washington
By Jean Shaoul
Mahmoud Abbas, the Fatah president of the Palestinian
Authority, has announced that he will dissolve the recently elected
parliament and call new presidential and parliamentary elections
A
Counterproductive U.S. Advice To Palestinians
By Nicola Nasser
Regardless of good will or bad faith, Palestinian
President Mahmoud Abbas’ decision to go without national consensus
to early presidential and parliamentary elections was divisive, counterproductive
and conforms to U.S.-Israeli plans to remove the Islamic Resistance
Movement “Hamas” from power or pressure it into accepting
what its rival Fatah had accepted: A peace process on their dictated
terms and conditions
Configuring
The Iraq’s Occupation
By Ghali Hassan
To cover up the daily suffering and massacres of
innocent Iraqi civilians, the U.S. is embarking on a campaign of pacifying
the public. In the recent report (The Way forward) prepared by the Iraq
Study Group (ISG), a group of American ruling elites chaired by James
Baker and Lee Hamilton, the Iraqi people had neither been consulted
nor treated as anything except as a moral pretext. It is a coup prepared
specifically for U.S. domestic consumption
The Baker-
Hamilton Study:Pluses And Minuses
By William R. Polk
“. . . in the quest for a short-term solution
to America’s Iraqi dilemma, Baker-Hamilton may have opted for
long-term catastrophe” by emphasizing Iraqi military strength
over the strength of civil society
Bush Administration
Elaborates
Plans For Bloodbath In Iraq
By Bill Van Auken
Reports on the Bush administration’s discussions
on a change of course in Iraq indicate that Washington is preparing
a major new bloodbath as part of a desperate attempt to salvage its
nearly four-year-old bid to conquer the oil-rich country
Call Me Ebenezer,
But Christmas As
We Know It Needs To Go.....
By Jason Miller
As recently as 2004, major US retailers raked in
a staggering $216.3 billion in November and December as each US consumer
spent an average of $835.00 on holiday gifts.What of Santa Claus and
Rudolph? Despite Global Climate Change decimating their home at the
North Pole, they are merrily leading Consumerism’s charge toward
humanitarian and ecological disaster. If Santa’s scheme is to
retire to a palatial estate in Miami, he can forget that. As the polar
ice cap melts, most of Florida will be inundated
Runaway
Global Warming -
The New Ecoterrorist Menace
By Bill Henderson
A spoof
"Defending
Our Interests And
Our People" (Lessons From Panama)
By Mickey Z.
Estimates range from 500 to 3000 dead Panamanian
civilians killed during the invasion and the fighting afterwards. Bush
the Elder was later asked if getting Noriega was worth all those deaths.
As if to confirm the unspoken tenet that some lives count more than
others, the president replied: "Every human life is precious, and
yet I have to answer, yes, it has been worth it."
Caught
Between culture And weakness:
The Ipswich victims
By Sambaiah Gundimeda
An essay dedicated in memory of Tania Nicol, Gemma
Adams, Anneli Alderton, Paula Clennell and Annette Nicholas, the five
murdered women in Ipswich, UK
Victims
Of Meerut's Hashimpura Killings:
Brutalised, But Not Broken
By Harsh Mander
They mounted the truck and opened fire blindly,
killing at least half the men there. They dragged out the bodies and
threw them into the canal. Zulfikar listened as the truck finally drove
away. He came to know later that they then drove to the Hindon Canal,
and completed the massacre of the remaining men. Of the nearly 50 men
who the PAC picked up, only six survived
17 December, 2006
So
Where Has All The Snow Gone?
By Geoffrey Lean
Right across Europe's highest mountain chain, says
the World Meteorological Organisation, only a third as much snow as
usual has fallen so far this winter. Temperatures are up to three degrees
centigrade higher than normal, and in some resorts the weather is so
warm that even artificial snowmaking machines will not work
The
New Maharajas Of India
By Devinder Sharma & Bhaskar Goswami
What is it like to be a modern-day Indian prince?
Devinder Sharma and Bhaskar Goswami explain how the laws of the land
are being redefined to bring in the reality of the royal tag for the
rich and beautiful in the name of Special Economic Zones
Apocalypto:
The Cinematic Logic Of Genocide
By Juan Santos
Despite its extreme brutality Apocalypto isn’t
just Gibson’s latest snuff film with a religious theme. The film
is a morality play, and there are only two things one needs to remember
to get a hint of the ugly moral intent behind Mel Gibson’s depiction
of the Maya
The U.S.
Government Hates Democracy
(Lessons From Italy)
By Mickey Z
As far as I'm concerned, we can't put forward enough
reminders of how the U.S. government about peace, freedom, justice,
etc. aside, the land of the free is not even remotely interested in
spreading democracy. There is an abundance of evidence to back up this
assertion. For now, I offer the example of post-World War II Italy
The Spirit
Of Democracy In Venezuela
By Stephen Lendman
"(Getting) rid of all the five tentacles of
capitalist imperialism: exploitation, domination, discrimination, militarization
and alienation....in a class struggle against global fascism."
In Venezuela, the process has only just begun
The Atrocities
Of Augusto Pinochet
And The United States
By Roger Burbach
The Pinochet affair has shaped a whole new generation
of human rights activists and lawyers. They are determined to end the
impunity of public officials, including that of the civilian and military
leaders in the United States who engage in state terrorism and human
rights abuses while violating international treaties like the Geneva
Conventions
Aljazeera International:The
Plot Thickens
By Ramzy Baroud
The launch of Aljazeera International on November
15, the English arm of Aljazeera Satellite Television was hardly an
ordinary event. It was another notable addition to the growing global
efforts aimed at counterbalancing American-European domination over
world media
Bread, Bread,
Everywhere,
Yet Not A Morsel To Eat
By Jason Miller
Blaming starvation’s victims for populating
the planet beyond its capacity may assuage many people’s guilt,
but this heartless conclusion is based on pernicious myths. Humanity
produces more than enough food to sustain the entire world population.
In its rush to dominate, plunder and exploit “developing nations,
the “developed world”, causes many of the famines it duplicitously
attributes to irresponsible procreation
Bolivian Congress
Passes
Agrarian Reform Legislation
By Andean Information Network
On November 29 the Bolivian Senate approved the
law modifying Bolivia's 1996 Agrarian Reform law. The lower house of
congress, where President Evo Morales's MAS party has a clear majority
approved the law quickly, but MAS needed 3 votes from opposition parties
who hotly contested the initiative. The vote took place after a week
of heightened tensions and public protest
Congress
Can Overrule The President On Any Decision
By Rev. Bill McGinnis
A two-thirds vote in both houses overrides a Presidential
veto, and the President must then obey and implement whatever law Congress
has passed, on penalty of impeachment if he fails to do so
16 December, 2006
Israeli
High Court Sanctions
Political Assassinations
By Bill Van Auken
Israel’s high court Thursday ruled that the
Zionist regime’s use of political assassination—so-called
“targeted killings”—against members of Palestinian
organizations in the occupied territories is not only justified but
in conformity with international law
The Trap Of
Recognising Israel
By Jonathan Cook
Regional and possibly global war may be triggered
simply to ensure that Israel’s “existence” as a state
that offers exclusive privileges to Jews continues
Dear Santa,
Or Someone
By Deb Reich
I live in Israel/Palestine and I think I am probably
addicted to the big bad conflict we have here. But Our souls are ready
to reach past this conflict to a new shared future, as the blades of
grass are ready to poke through the dirt again, all over this sorrowing
land, reaching up regardless through the blood-soaked soil: little green
stalks of life and hope, irrepressible. And over every blade of grass
hovers its own angel, whispering: Grow, lovely one! Shaatr! Ta’al!
Come to me… Grow!
Hudna Or
Not: Palestinian
Rights Must Be Preserved
By Ramzy Baroud
While proposing a hudna is maybe an expression
of the current Palestinian government's commitment to peace, or perhaps
a way out of a terrible bind; regardless, it should neither override
nor cancel out the Palestinian people's uncompromising adherence to
their just demands for freedom and rights, determined by a Palestinian
national consensus and cemented in international law
Baker's Cake
By Uri Avnery
Baker has presented his plan at a time when the
US is facing disaster in Iraq. President Bush is bankrupt, his party
has lost control of Congress and may soon lose the White House. The
neo-conservatives, most of them Jews and all of them supporters of the
Israeli extreme Right, who were in control of American foreign policy,
are being removed one by one. Therefore, it is possible that this time
the President may listen to expert advice
Omissions
In The Iraq Study Group Report
By Stephen Lendman
It remains to be seen how long it will take for
a mass awakening to occur to arouse the public at home, as it did in
Iraq and Afghanistan, making them no longer willing to put up with the
kind of abuse and neglect they've so far failed to resist. If history
is a guide, it will happen
16 Days Of
Activism To End
Violence Against Women
By Amrita Nandy-Joshi
we are the bystanders to other men's violence,
and have to make a choice: do we stay silent and look the other way
when our male friends and relatives insult or attack women, or do we
speak up? We urge the governments and parliaments that have adopted
laws to ensure their implementation
Nobel
- Man's Un-Noble Corporate Nexus
By Omar Tarek Chowdhury
So why then did Norway’s Nobel committee
give Yunus the award? Colleagues in Oslo point out to me that he was
strongly supported by friends in the Norwegian elite, including a former
top finance ministry bureaucrat and leading officials of the national
phone company, Telenor, which owns 62% of lucrative GrameenPhone, a
company in control of 60% of Bangladesh’s cellphone market
Guajarat:
Grave Mistakes
By Teesta Setalvad
The challenges thrown up for India, post-Godhra
of 2002, are fundamental. Are the politically powerful, even if they
be organisers of mass murder and rape, immune from the law?
08 December, 2006
The
Empire Is Falling
By Robert Fisk
The Roman Empire is falling. That, in a phrase,
is what the Baker report says. The legions cannot impose their rule
on Mesopotamia
Iraq Report
Sees "Grave And Deteriorating" Crisis
By Arshad Mohammed & Steve Holland
U.S. troops should begin withdrawing from combat
and Washington should launch a diplomatic and political push to halt
a "grave and deteriorating" crisis in Iraq,Iraq Study Group
report said on Wednesday
Widows
Become The Silent Tragedy
By Dahr Jamail & Ali Al-Fadhily
Hundreds of thousands of widows are becoming the
silent tragedy of a country sliding deeper into chaos by the day.Widows
are the flip side of violence that has meant more than a million men
dead, detained or disabled, Iraqi NGOs estimate. These men's wives or
mothers now carry the burden of running the families
Richest 2%
Hold Half The World’s Assets
By Chris Giles
Personal wealth is distributed so unevenly across
the world that the richest two per cent of adults own more than 50 per
cent of the world’s assets while the poorest half hold only 1
per cent of wealth
No More War
By Ed O’Rourke
The terrorists are an insignificant challenge to
mankind’s survival. Without nuclear weapons, they may be able
to kill a few thousand people at a time. On the other hand, nuclear
war, global warming or environmental degradation will wipe out civilization
Vietnam,
Iraq, And The M Word
By Mickey Z.
Other countries have war criminals. In America,
we have the mistaken
Experts Battle
Over Safety And Efficacy Of SSRIs
By Evelyn Pringle
Every time the FDA is even thinking about taking
measures to protect the public from the increased risk of suicide associated
with SSRIs, Big Pharma sends out the hired guns to publish some half-baked
study to dispute the suicide risk
It’s
Your Nigger Problem Not Hip-Hop’s
By March Anthony Neal
"Debates over the use of the word ‘nigger’
in popular culture which highlight a philosophical divide within 'blackness.'"
The Communist
State As A
“Developmental Terrorist”
By Aseem Shrivastava
The sorrows of Singur are typical of India’s
feudal globalization
God And
Faith In The Life Of Indians
By Subhash Gatade
The observations of recent survey tend to emphasise
the growing religiosity of the Indian people, especially its younger
lot, and thus could boost the ratings of social/political formations
whose weltanshauung itself revolves around god. They also demonstrate
the growing 'market of spirituality'
Right To
Information Emasculated
By Prashant Bhushan
Effectively unconstitutional when it comes to accountability
of public servants, the proposed amendments in the Right to Information
Act will take the life out of it
Who owns
The American Congress ?
By David Truskoff
This past election presented a clear picture of
where the American political structure is at, a picture that should
not only frighten Americans but frighten the world because the whole
world is affected
What
She Wore
By Lucinda Marshall
It is unfortunate when the media continues, with
all its damaging and misogynist implications, to insist by inclusion
that what women wear or how they look is related to their capability.
As Allison Stevens demonstrates, it is in fact possible to write about
women and what they have accomplished without trivializing their empowerment
by asserting such spurious connection . This is the standard to which
journalism should be held in regard to gender
07 December, 2006
Death
Toll Rises As Iraq War Grinds On
By James Cogan
With Iraqi deaths already estimated at around 650,000
and the American death toll moving toward 3,000, the US ruling elite’s
actions will necessarily intensify the violence in Iraq, resulting in
even greater casualties
It's Hard
Being A Woman
By Dahr Jamail & Ali Al-Fadhily
Once one of the best countries for women's rights
in the Middle East, Iraq has now become a place where women fear for
their lives in an increasingly fundamentalist environment
"Out
Of Iraq"
By Kevin Zeese
When U.S. Occupation in Iraq Ends the Violence
is More Likely to Subside Half Measures Seem Less Dangerous, But Are
Often More so. An Interview with William Polk, Author of "Out of
Iraq"
Don't Expect
U.S. To Create Democracy
In Iraq (Lessons From Greece)
By Mickey Z.
It would be nice to believe that the U.S./British
invasion of Iraq may have been horribly mishandled but the motivation
behind it was sincere. After all, it's a timeless classic: toss out
a depot and introduce democracy. However, even the most perfunctory
glance at previous U.S./British ventures would promptly expose the lies.
An excellent example is post-WWII Greece
The Judiciary:
Cutting Edge Of A Predator State
By Prashant Bhushan
There was a time, not so long ago, when the Supreme
Court of India waxed eloquent about the Fundamental right to life and
liberty guaranteed by Article 21 of the Constitution to include all
that it takes to lead a decent and dignified life.Alas, all that seems
a distant dream now, given the recent role of the courts in not just
failing to protect the rights of the poor that they had themselves declared
not long ago, but in fact spearheading the massive assault on the poor
since the era of economic liberalization. This is happening in case
after case
21st American
Century Is About To End
By Abid Mustafa
Barely six years have elapsed since President Bush
took office and the much coveted 21st century belongs to America is
about to come to an abrupt end. America's pre-eminence in four corners
of the world is being challenged by friends and foes alike
New Democrats
And Crime: Responsible
Executive Oversight
By Bill Henderson
A responsible citizen who witnesses a crime can't
choose to turn a blind eye and just move on. The newly elected, now
Democratically controlled Congress is responsible for executive branch
oversight
Unbending
Bush
By William Fisher
As the new Democratic Party majority in Congress
considers whether to re-visit the Military Commissions Act of 2006 (MCA),
the administration of President George W. Bush is proposing still more
restrictions on detainees in American custody
North
Korea's Rebellion
By Felix Englen
America’s aims may be tempered by the varying
interests of the other governments, who previously took part in six-party
negotiations with North Korea - Russia, China, Japan and South Korea
05 December, 2006
An
Appeal For An Abandoned People
By Donald Macintyre
Maybe they are just conveniently forgetting other
periods in Gaza's turbulent and blood-stained history, but most Gazans
will tell you that 2006 is the worst year they can remember
Video Reveals
US Torture Of
“Enemy Combatant” José Padilla
By Tom Carter
Lawyers for José Padilla, the Brooklyn-born
man imprisoned and tortured for almost four years by the Bush administration,
have released to the media still frames from a video taken during one
episode in the course of his captivity in a South Carolina Naval brig
The Legacy
Of Babri Masjid
By Farzana Versey
Why do 800 million Indians find us a threat? The
Muslim is an abstraction now. S/he would be forced to ask: Who am I?
And the response would be…I am the AK-47 rifle, I am the detonated
bomb, I am the dynamite that has blown up cars, trains, bodies, I am
the beard, the burqa, I am the voice that shouts out loud in the streets
to support dictators who look like thieves, I am the bent over figure
taking up public space for my prayers, I am the loudspeaker that beckons
believers and is a nuisance to the ears, I am the butcher with the knife
over a poor goat's neck, I am the one that the metal detector detects
faster than anyone else. I am not like you anymore. This is the legacy
of Babri
The End
Of The Bush Dynasty
By Stephen Lendman
It now remains for his final exit that can't come
soon enough for most who want him out now and may act to force it if
the Congress won't act as a majority of the public demands. Whatever
happens from here, the king is dead (even with his head in place), and
with it the power and influence of a family dynasty brought down by
the poisoned chalice of its ill-chosen successor, unworthy and unable
to wear the crown and pass it to the next in line
Don't Let
Dick Cheney Read Your Palm
By Mickey Z.
A look back at some of the predictions that Dick
Cheney made on Iraq
Honest
Centrism For Populist Democracy
By Joel S. Hirschhorn
To fix our nation we must remove control of OUR
political system by the two major parties. Many rightfully see the Republican
and Democratic parties as just two sides of the same coin or two heads
of the same beast
Shias Too
Lose Faith In Iraqi Govt
By Dahr Jamail & Ali al-Fadhily
The noisy demonstration that greeted Iraqi Prime
Minister Noori al-Maliki on his visit to Sadr City last week was more
than just a protest. It meant that the leader of a Shia-dominated government
was being rejected by an angry and influential group of Shias
Civilizations:
Clash Or Alliance
By Ram Puniyani
Is it possible to think positively, to think that
'Another World is possible', a World where Human rights of all of us
are adhered to
SSRI Experts
Head To Washington
To Testify Before FDA Panel
By Evelyn Pringle
On December 13, 2006, the FDA’s Psychopharmacologic
Drugs Advisory Committee will hold a public hearing to review the suicidality
data from the adult selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) studies.
And, for what seems like the umpteenth time, SSRI experts from all over
the US, and as far away as the UK, will travel to Washington to once
again testify at yet another hearing on the suicide risks associated
with these drugs
Khairlanji:
Conspiracy Of Silence
Government agency report agency report indicts
officials in Khairlanji massacre
04 December, 2006
Chavez
Set For Election Victory
By Andrew Buncombe
Venezuela votes today, with polls suggesting incumbent
Hugo Chavez will be easily reelected to a third term with a lead of
anything up to 20 point over his centrist challenger, Manuel Rosales
Gangster
Capitalism And The Third Maroon War
By John Maxwell
We are all Maroons now, whether we know it or not,
wherever we are on the face of the Earth, whoever we are, black, white
or in-between, male or female, human, as long as we are alive, animal
or vegetable, on land or in the sea or the air, our very existence is
under attack.If we want to survive we have to take action. We need to
resist the destruction of our own and our planet’s integrity,
resist degradation and deformity and protect ourselves from extinction
Monga,
Micro credit And The Nobel Prize
By Anu Muhammad
While Muhammad Yunus must be credited highly for
his contribution in innovation in banking and opening up vast sea of
market for the huge accumulated finance capital, linking of poverty
alleviation with this corporate success is ridiculous and may not be
very innocent one
Iraq’s
Death Squads: An Instrument
Of The Occupation
By Ghali Hassan
The longer the U.S. forces stayed in Iraq, the
more violence they generate. Only full and immediate withdrawal of U.S.
forces and mercenaries will contribute to the end of violence and ongoing
suffering of the Iraqi people
Treasuring
Our American Values Of Greed,
Self-Interest, And Enlightened Oppression
By Ragnar Redbeard III
A satirical apology for American Capitalism
What we're
Up Against(Lessons From Guatemala)
By Mickey Z.
Those seeking peace, justice, and solidarity should
never underestimate the relentless and brutal power of what they are
up against. I am reminded of this every time I re-read "Bridge
of Courage: Life Stories of the Guatemalan Compañeros and Compañeras,"
(Common Courage Press, 1995) an amazing book by Jennifer Harbury
A
Young Man's Chronicle Of Hell
By Randolph T. Holhut
At a time when journalism is under siege by market
pressures, by government, by the general dumbing down of the culture,
Omer's example of courage, passion and commitment gives me hope that
a new generation is rising up to bring us the uncomfortable truths about
our world, regardless of the personal cost
Hindutva
Strategies And Dalit Movement
By Ram Puniyani
Book review of Vidya Bhushan Rawat's book "Ambedkar,
Ayodhya aur Dalit Andolan"
Monks And
Politics In Ladakh
By Stanzin Dawa
Over the years the nature and character of Ladakh
politics has gone through unprecedented change. It's like a whirlpool
drawing everything we have collectively nurtured and developed. Instead
of developing Ladakh this politics is doing more damages and destructions
03 December, 2006
Will
Tumbling Dollar Start An Economic Whirlwind?
By Philip Thornton
Transatlantic travellers hoping to cash in on a
$2 pound for the first time in 14 years should enjoy the good times
while they last, because a tumbling dollar could start an economic whirlwind
Massive Ice
Shelf 'May Collapse without Warning'
By New Zealand Herald
The Ross Ice Shelf, a massive piece of ice the
size of France, could break off without warning causing a dramatic rise
in sea levels, warn New Zealand scientists working in Antarctica
The
Checkpoint Generation
By Amira Hasss
For nearly a month now, a young Palestinian has
been hospitalized at Beilinson Hospital; soldiers shot him at a checkpoint
in northern Nablus on Saturday, November 4. Haitem Yassin, 25, is conscious
now, but he is still hooked up to a respirator
My Reservations
About The French
By Robert Fisk
Pétain sent his country's Jews to Auschwitz
with an enthusiasm that surprised the Nazis
The Spirit
Of Resistance In Mexico City
By Stephen Lendman
The people of Mexico are now playing out in real
time, and as events ahead unfold it may be that Mexican history will
be made in the hearts of the people and the spirit they show in the
streets they take to and not in the halls of power where it usually
happens
Jon Tester’s
Neopopulism :The Montana Formula
By Joshua Frank
We should keep an eye on the senator-to-be when
he takes office next month. If Jon Tester shuns the corporate wing of
the Democratic Party, and truly speaks for the people of Montana, he
could have a profound effect on our national discourse. Not to mention
the way business is done in Washington
Oath Of Office
causes Unwarranted Controversy
By Celine LeDuc & Ann Wilmer
Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn. is causing a controversy
before he even makes one political decision, because he is a Muslim.
The first Muslim elected to the United States Congress has announced
that he will take his oath of office on the holy book of his faith --
the Qur’an
Merry December
To You
By Mickey Z.
Whenever we disobey orders, clasp hands across
national borders, and become citizens of the world we, like John Lennon
sang, have "nothing to kill or die for." So, Merry, Happy
Whatever you choose to celebrate. But be sure to celebrate. As Thomas
Merton said, "He who celebrates is not powerless."
02 December, 2006
A
New Dalit Movement Emerging
From Maharastra?
By Vidya Bhushan Rawat
The uprising in Maharastra has a signal for the
self styled mainstream Dalit political leaders and parties. Mend your
ways or get lost as the young Dynamic Dalit leadership would emerge
out of a crisis from Maharastra. It is certain that incidents like Khairlanji
and Gohana would fuel the Dalit anger and turn them to streets. Out
of this anger and frustration would emerge a leadership which would
not compromise like their leaders
Why Are
Maharashtra's Dalits So Angry?
By Kalpana Sharma
Instead of looking at whether the protests by Dalits
against the Khairlanji incident and against the desecration of Ambedkar's
statue were "spontaneous" or part of an organised plan, we
need to understand the basis of this fury
Like Hitler
And Brezhnev,Bush Is In Denial
By Robert Fisk
More than half a million deaths, an army trapped
in the largest military debacle since Vietnam, a Middle East policy
already buried in the sands of Mesopotamia - and still George W Bush
is in denial. How does he do it?
Bush-Maliki
Summit: White House Rejects
Any Withdrawal From Iraq
By Patrick Martin
The location of the summit was itself of symbolic
significance: the chief of state of the world’s strongest military
power could not visit the country he targeted for invasion and occupation,
more than three years after his notorious boasting of “Mission
Accomplished.” Bush dared not risk even a few hours’ stay
inside the heavily protected Green Zone in downtown Baghdad
Iraq: Business
Becomes A Big Casualty
By Dahr Jamail & Ali al-Fadhily
The business and economic morass Iraq finds itself
in today is evident in the market places across the capital city."There
is no Iraqi brand any more. Iraqi products flourished during the quarter
century before occupation, but now we only sell imported products of
the lowest quality, and people have to buy them because there is no
alternative."
U.S. Supreme
Court Divided on Warming
By Zachary Coile
The U.S. Supreme Court, tackling its first case
on climate change, appeared divided and somewhat baffled Wednesday over
how the government should respond to the warming of the planet
Venezuela And
The Bolivarian Dream
By Tariq Ali
In South America an axis of hope has emerged that
challenges imperial domination on every level. Democracy, hollowed-out
and offering no alternatives in the North, is being used to revive hope
in the South
Confrontation
In Bolivia Over Agrarian Reform
By Roger Burbach
The government of Evo Morales and the indigenous
social movements of Bolivia have won an historic victory with the passage
of an agrarian reform law that calls for the “expropriation of
lands” that “do not serve a just social-economic function.”
Whistleblowers:
Fired,Silenced . . . And Killed
By Peter Rost
It doesn’t help Russian President Putin that
his critics appear to die like flies around him. Not that this means
Mr. Putin did anything. He may just be a lucky guy, who happens to have
short-lived critics
How Many Votes
Were Stolen Or Suppressed In 2006?
By Bruce Dixon
“...roughly 3 million Democratic votes in
November 2006 appear to have been cast but not counted, or shifted to
the Republican column”
Plots
And Politics In God's Own Country:
Fifty Years Of Kerala
By Shajahan Madampat
On November 1, 2006, Kerala, the small Indian state
of idyllic beauty and rampantly itinerant people, turned 50. Some stale,
'goes without saying' sort of clichés usually precede any discussion
on Kerala politics: It is a state where a communist government, or kind
of a communist government, was voted to power for the first time in
human history
01 December, 2006
HRW
Documents Repression In Kashmir
By Parwini Zora & Daniel Woreck
A recent report by the US-based Human Rights Watch
(HRW) documents the systematic human rights abuses carried out by the
Indian security forces in the state of Jammu and Kashmir with the protection
of the Indian government and legal system
Khairlanji’s
Strange And Bitter Crop
By Satya Sagar
The latest incidence of this ‘strange and
bitter crop’ was in Khairlanji, a small village in Bhandara distict
near Nagpur in the western Indian province of Maharashtra and a horrific
‘harvest’ it was too
Barack Obama
And The Winds Of War
By Glen Ford
Barack Obama--who has never claimed to be a Black
leader--is in fact not a leader at all. Nowhere is this more evident
than in the most critical issue facing Americans and the world at this
dangerous juncture in history: the war in Iraq
Ahmadinejad's
Letter To The American People
By Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
Full text of Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's
letter to the American people
Palestinians
Are Being Denied
The right To Non-Violent Resistance
By Jonathan Cook
If one thing offers a terrifying glimpse of where
the experiment in human despair that is Gaza under Israeli siege is
leading, it is the news that a Palestinian woman in her sixties -- a
grandmother -- chose last week to strap on a suicide belt and explode
herself next to a group of Israeli soldiers invading her refugee camp
Palestine:
Peace Not Apartheid
By John Dugard
Former President Jimmy Carter's new book, "Palestine:
Peace Not Apartheid," is igniting controversy for its allegation
that Israel practices a form of apartheid
Wal Mart
Nihilism Versus The Punk Rock Of Blogging
By Phil Rockstroh
The do-it-your-self-art idea being the key that
unlocks the barred door of the commodified prison of a corporatist state
of mind and allows one's life to be created -- not by narrow careerist
agendas -- but by the surrender to all it takes to be free. It's not
the outcome of your endeavors, but the life lived. If you live with
such ardor -- who knows who and what you'll effect
This Christmas,
Say No To Fir
By Mickey Z.
Ninety-eight percent of all American Christmas
trees are grown on the more than 21,000 Christmas tree farms; these
farms eat up about 450,000 acres of land. It takes about 7-10 years
for a Christmas tree to mature, and for every harvested tree, 2-3 seedlings
are planted. Think of it like factory farming for firs
Noam Chomsky
And Gilbert Achcar's New Book:
Perilous Power
By Stephen Lendman
A review
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