DEAN BAKER Co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, Baker said today: “A lower stock market is good for a lot of people. If corn prices fell 30 percent, that would be bad for you if you’re a corn farmer, but good for you if you weren’t and ate a lot of corn.…

AP is reporting: “The Iraqi Cabinet has approved a draft law to manage the country’s vast oil industry and distribute its wealth among the population. Parliament will take up the measure when it reconvenes early next month after a recess. “With all major parties endorsing the bill, approval is likely, although some politicians predicted a…

In his speech at the National Press Club yesterday emphasizing his health care proposals and “bipartisanship,” California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said: “Whether you’re Republican or Democrat, you don’t have to give up your principles at all. But isn’t the ultimate principle to serve the people? To do the things that are good for the people?”…

McClatchy Newspapers published an analysis on poverty today. It reports: “The percentage of poor Americans who are living in severe poverty has reached a 32-year high, millions of working Americans are falling closer to the poverty line and the gulf between the nation’s ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’ continues to widen. “A McClatchy Newspapers analysis of 2005…

Arrests occurred in several states yesterday and today as peace activists pushed for commitments from elected officials to vote against President Bush’s request for an additional $93 billion to fund the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Arrests occurred in Fairbanks, Alaska; Chicago, Illinois; Toledo, Ohio; Portland, Oregon; and St. Louis, Missouri. Office occupations were also underway…

The Los Angeles Times featured a front-page piece on Wednesday headlined “Safety Alarms Raised at Nuclear Weapons Plant,” which reports: “Electrical failures have shut down the plant. The roof has leaked. Decrepit machinery dates back more than 40 years. Safety lapses led inspectors to levy fines twice within two years. And employees, under deadline pressure,…

AP is reporting today: “Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas were scheduled to hold separate meetings in Berlin on the pact he made with Hamas.” JEFF HALPER Coordinator of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions and a professor of anthropology, Halper is author of Obstacles to Peace: Reframing the Israel-Palestine Conflict…

The New York Times reported this week: “A draft version of the long-awaited law that would govern the development of Iraqi oil fields and the distribution of oil revenues has been submitted to Iraq’s cabinet, the first step toward approving the legislation, two members of a senior negotiating committee said this weekend.” A leaked copy…

DAVID BARSAMIAN Barsamian has just returned from Iran and is author of the forthcoming book Targeting Iran. He said today: “Virtually everything the Bush administration has done has made things more difficult for Iranian reformers. The moderate Khatami government helped the U.S. oust the Taliban in 2001; in return Bush called Iran part of the…

Reuters reports today — in a piece headlined “Ex-aide says Rice misled Congress on Iran” — that “Controversy over a possible missed U.S. opportunity for rapprochement with Iran grew on Wednesday as former aide accused Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice of misleading Congress on the issue. “Flynt Leverett, who worked on the National Security Council…