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* Greek Crisis * International Labor Organization
MARK WEISBROT, weisbrot at cepr.net, also via Alan Barber, barber at cepr.net Co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, Weisbrot wrote a column in The Guardian on Friday titled “Greece: Bond Slave to Europe,” which states that debt renegotiation “is going to happen even under the European authorities, but first, they are putting the country through years of unnecessary suffering. And they are taking advantage of the situation to privatize public assets at fire sale prices and restructure the Greek state and economy, so that it is more to their liking. … The European authorities have more than…
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AARP: Lobbying Group for Seniors or Insurance Company?
The Wall Street Journal reports today: “AARP, the powerful lobbying group for older Americans, is dropping its longstanding opposition to cutting Social Security benefits, a move that could rock Washington’s debate over how to revamp the nation’s entitlement programs.” DOUG HENWOOD, dhenwood at panix.com Editor of Left Business Observer, Henwood said today: “The news that AARP will now support cuts to Social Security reads like a sign that this former lobby for the interest of older Americans has now transformed itself completely into an insurance company. Surely they can’t be persuaded by the merits of the arguments, since the alleged…
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Western Fires and “Global Weirding”
CHIP WARD, wardchip at hotmail.com Ward writes regularly for TomDistpatch.com and is the author of Canaries on the Rim: Living Downwind in the West and Hope’s Horizon: Three Visions for Healing the American Land. He just wrote the article “How the West Was Lost: The American West in Flames” in which he examines the recent forest fires in the western United States and connects them to “global weirding.” “These past few years, mega-fires in the west have become ever more routine. Though their estimates and measurements may vary, the experts who study these phenomena all agree that wildfires today are bigger,…
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Libya War Illegal?
CNN reports: “A bipartisan group of House members [lead by Reps. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) and Walter Jones (R-NC)] will file a lawsuit Wednesday challenging U.S. participation in the Libya military mission. Meanwhile, President Barack Obama is set to defend U.S. military involvement in Libya to Congress, according to the White House. … House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said in a letter to Obama on Tuesday that the administration could be in violation of the War Powers Resolution if it fails to get congressional authorization by Sunday, which he notes will be the 90th day since the mission began.”
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Abuse and Protests in Puerto Rico
Obama is visiting Puerto Rico today. ADRIANA MULERO CLAUDIO, la.luna.de.firmin at gmail.com SCOTT BARBES CAMINERO, sbarbes at gmail.com Mulero is a student activist who was suspended for political activity several months ago. She states that though there are some rights for people in Puerto Rico, real freedom is limited in large part because it is a colony of the United States. She highlights the continued imprisonment of pro-independence activists. She is participating in protests today with “several thousand people. In addition to the issue of independence, the protests are also against war and exploitation.” Barbes is a labor organizer who…
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Whistleblowers: “Rescind Obama’s ‘Transparency Award’ Now!”
Over 20 noted whistleblowers have just released a petition calling for rescinding a “Transparency Award” President Obama recently received. The signatories including Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the Pentagon Papers; former CIA analyst Raymond McGovern; former Pentagon analyst Lt. Colonel Karen Kwiatkowski; and former National Security Agency analyst Russ Tice. SIBEL EDMONDS, sibeledmonds at boilingfrogspost.com, boilingfrogspost.com COLEEN ROWLEY, rowleyclan at earthlink.net Edmonds and Rowley drafted the petition. Edmonds is a former FBI official and whistleblower. Rowley is a former FBI Special Agent and Division Counsel whose May 2002 memo described some of the FBI’s pre-9/11 failures and was named one of…
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Pentagon Papers: Lessons for Today
Forty years ago today, on June 13, 1971, the New York Times began publishing the Pentagon Papers, top-secret government documents that showed a pattern of governmental deceit about the Vietnam War. In the weeks that followed the Nixon White House worked to stop the Times and other newspapers from publishing the Papers, with the Supreme Court ultimately ruling against prior restraint. Daniel Ellsberg leaked the Pentagon Papers and later that month got them to Sen. Mike Gravel, who late in the evening of June 29 to June 30 entered them into the Congressional Record; he was conducting a filibuster against…
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FBI “Off the Rails”
The New York Times is reporting: “The Federal Bureau of Investigation is giving significant new powers to its roughly 14,000 agents, allowing them more leeway to search databases, go through household trash or use surveillance teams to scrutinize the lives of people who have attracted their attention.” SHAHID BUTTAR, via Amy E. Ferrer, media at bordc.org Buttar is executive director of the Bill of Rights Defense Committee. He said today: “Over Director Mueller’s ten-year tenure, the FBI has repeatedly violated the rights of peaceful Americans, abused its powers, lied to Congress, and overlooked opportunities to better protect national security –…
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Should NATO Have a Future?
AP reports: “America’s military alliance with Europe — the cornerstone of U.S. security policy for six decades — faces a ‘dim, if not dismal’ future, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Friday in a blunt valedictory address.” DAVID N. GIBBS, dgibbs at arizona.edu Author of First Do No Harm: Humanitarian Intervention and the Destruction of Yugoslavia, Gibbs is a professor of history and government at the University of Arizona. He said today: “NATO basically lost its reason for being in 1991 and has been struggling to find a purpose since then. The world would probably be better off if NATO simply…
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Syria and Yemen
ELAINE HAGOPIAN, echagop at verizon.net Hagopian is a Syrian-American sociologist, a professor emeritus of sociology at Simmons College in Boston and political interviewer for Arabic Hour TV. She said today: “There is and has been in Syria an authentic desire for real democracy, for real economic opportunity, for elimination of the vast corruption and privilege given to the Alawites, the powerful minority base of the Assad regime. The protesters were not originally calling for President Bashar Assad’s removal, but for vast reforms. Bashar initially ignored these demands and then began to offer, but not fulfill some of them. As the…
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“With a tiny staff, it has managed to place on the air and in newspapers, points of view otherwise excluded from the national debate.”
Howard Zinn