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 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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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, …

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…