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New Orleans Now
Communications director of the Praxis Project and a New Orleans resident, Kenyon Farrow said today: “While the country may see hope in the new levees and drainage systems built for New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, the levees aren’t the only thing in need of repair. Most of the funds allocated for rebuilding the city did…
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Israeli Court “Blames All But Who Killed Rachel Corrie”
Simona Sharoni is a professor at the State University of New York in Plattsburgh and the chairperson of its Gender and Women’s Studies Department. A citizen of Israel who served in the IDF, she worked closely with Rachel Corrie before she left to Gaza while Sharoni was teaching at the Evergreen State College. Sharoni said…
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Ignoring Iran’s Call for Banning Nuclear Weapons by 2025
Alice Slater is the New York director of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation and is on the coordinating committee of Abolition 2000, a nuclear disarmament network. She said today: “Significantly, an Associated Press article in the Washington Post headlined, ‘Iran Opens Nonaligned Summit with Calls for Nuclear Arms Ban’ reported that ‘Iranian Foreign Minister Ali…
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Do Conventions Matter?
Elizabeth Sanders is professor of government at Cornell University and author of Roots of Reform and the forthcoming Presidents, War, and Reform. Beginning Wednesday, she is scheduled to be at the American Political Science Association Convention in New Orleans. Sanders recently wrote the piece “What We Should be Talking About: Romney’s Foreign Policy Advisers.” She…
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Is Ron Paul Being Co-opted?
The Washington Post reports that Ron Paul has told media outlets that “he was denied a chance to speak [at the Republican convention] because he refused to let the Romney campaign vet his remarks and give an unconditional endorsement.” Ron Paul spoke at a rally near the convention site on Sunday. Senior fellow at the…
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Tropical Storm Isaac’s Destruction Another “Unnatural Disaster” in Haiti
AP reports at least eight deaths from tropical storm Issac in Haiti. Over 30 groups working on Haiti have set up the Under Tents campaign in working to ensure housing. The groups state that many of Haiti’s problems are not “natural disasters,” but are the result of policies that become increasingly glaring as Haiti faces…
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Cuba’s Hurricane Preparedness: A Model for Florida and the Gulf Coast?
Gail Reed is executive editor of MEDICC [Medical Education Cooperation with Cuba] Review. She said today: “In the many years I’ve worked here in Cuba, I’ve seen the disaster prevention strategy up close — and been in at least five hurricanes myself. Cuba does a few things we don’t often see in other countries that…
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Who Runs the Presidential Debates?
Last week the Commission on Presidential Debates named the moderators for the scheduled presidential and vice presidential debates. While some criticized the lack of ethnic diversity and other aspects of the debates, largely unexamined is the group that sponsors the debates. George Farah is executive director of Open Debates and author of the book No…
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Questions About Sweden’s Actions in Assange Case
Jonathan Schwarz is a researcher and producer for Michael Moore’s Dog Eat Dog Films. Michael Moore and Oliver Stone write in their Tuesday New York Times op-ed, “WikiLeaks and Free Speech,” that: “Mr. Assange has also committed to traveling to Sweden immediately if the Swedish government pledges that it will not extradite him to the…
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Beyond Akin’s Rape Comment: The Republican Platform
Jodi Jacobson is president and editor-in-chief for RH Reality Check. She just wrote the piece “As Romney and Ryan Dissemble, RNC Prepares Radical Anti-Choice Platform Based on Personhood,” which states: “As of today, Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan may find themselves in a wee bit of a bind. “For the past two days, the pair…
