RANIA KHALEK,
raniakhalek[at]gmail.com, @RaniaKhalek
Khalek is associate editor at the ElectronicIntifada.net and co-host of the “Unauthorized Disclosure” podcast. She tweeted: “While everyone was losing their minds over the Republican circus, Obama oversaw the killing of over 100 ppl in a matter of hours.” See CNN.com: “Several human rights group said airstrikes this week killed dozens of people, pushing the death toll past 100.” AirWars.org shows updates on the U.S. bombing of Syria and Iraq. Khalek will be in Philadelphia next week.
RUSSELL MOKHIBER, russellmokhiber[at]gmail.com, @corpcrimereport
Currently in Cleveland, Mokhiber will be in Philadelphia during the Democratic Party Convention. He is editor of Corporate Crime Reporter, a weekly print newsletter based in Washington, D.C. Mokhiber also produces a daily podcast — the Corporate Crime Reporter Morning Minute.
GREG COLERIDGE, gcoleridge[at]afsc.org, @gregcoleridge
Coleridge is director of the Northeast Ohio American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker organization. He said today: “We’ve helped organize — with lots of other groups — the People’s Justice and Peace Convention and a March to End Poverty here in Cleveland. We’re raising a bunch of issues, but corporate media seem far less interested in issues than in the prospect for bedlam and violence. It’s almost as though they were egging on. … I’ve never seen such a militarized city. …
“Issues at our convention included climate, the military-industrial-congressional complex, money in elections and the mis-named ‘trade deals’. The establishment politicians are rarely addressing these and when they do, it’s in a twisted fashion. We tried to go beyond reacting and responding, to put forward a positive vision.
“The rally against poverty brought out over 1000 people, including grassroots organizations themselves representing poor people. In Cleveland today, 40 percent of people are low income. That has so many consequences in terms of healthcare, of retaining a job, of trying to have a tax base to maintain infrastructure. It’s not a question of resources. It’s a question of political will. These are profound crises and the solutions need to be systemic in nature.”
