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  • Sorry, Census. Poverty Really Did Increase in 2009.

    Between 2008 and 2009, unemployment increased from 5.8 percent to 9.3 percent, the largest one-year increase on record (which goes back to 1948). Over the same period, the number of Americans without health insurance coverage rose by more than four million — from 46.3 million in 2008 to 50.7 million in 2009 — and low-income…

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  • Bruce Reed Appointed Biden Chief of Staff Today

    In light of his prominent role in deficit reduction and the ‘end of welfare’ in the 1990s, Reed’s appointment sends a clear — and troubling — signal about the administration’s domestic policy priorities in the years ahead. Alice O’Connor is author of Poverty Knowledge: Social Science, Social Policy and the Poor in Twentieth Century U.S.…

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  • A Statement from Former Prisoner Omar Deghayes on the 9th Anniversary of the Opening of Guantánamo

    Two years ago, President Barack Obama pledged to bring an end to the anomaly that is Guantánamo within a year, and to thereby restore America’s moral standing in the world. Yet today, on January 11, 2011, we are marking the beginning of the tenth year since the first prisoners were transferred to Camp X Ray…

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  • The Referendum in Sudan

    KHARTOUM, Sudan — Just days before the historic referendum on southern independence Khartoum is experiencing temperate weather and what may turn out to be a deceptive calm. In fact, everybody is either worried or excited, depending on their circumstances. Southerners are resolute that they will not accept second class citizenship in their own country, otherwise,…

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  • The End of New Deal Liberalism

    By William Greider We have reached a pivotal moment in government and politics, and it feels like the last, groaning spasms of New Deal liberalism. When the party of activist government, faced with an epic crisis, will not use government’s extensive powers to reverse the economic disorders and heal deepening social deterioration, then it must…

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  • Chomsky’s initial reaction to WikiLeaks’ latest

    I took a quick look at [“U.S. embassy cables: Hillary Clinton woos prickly Egyptians“].  It’s interesting that Israel does not appear, only Gaza, West Bank, Lebanon.  I found only one entry of any interest, in US Embassy to Clinton: “Soliman brokered a half-year-long truce last year, which Hamas broke in December, leading to the Israeli…

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  • The Katharine Gun Case

    Katharine Gun, a British former government employee, faced two years imprisonment in England for the “crime” of telling the truth. She was charged with leaking an embarrassing U.S. intelligence memo indicating that the U.S. had mounted a spying “surge” against U.N. delegations in early 2003 in an effort to win approval of the Iraq war…

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  • Bush and Blair: A Partnership of Deception

    British Prime Minister Tony Blair is back in Britain now facing an ever-widening scandal involving the distortion of evidence on Iraq’s alleged weapons of mass destruction, but his recent trip to meet with President Bush underscores the partnership the two leaders have shared as both face growing evidence that they knowingly used faulty intelligence to…

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  • Bush in Africa: “A Cruel Hoax”?

    President Bush’s recent tour of Africa to tout his $15 billion pledge to fight the continent’s AIDS epidemic and promote trade was met with skepticism by critics who charged that his administration is attempting to mask regressive policies with staged public relations events. Bush’s trip to Africa appears to represent, more than anything else, an…

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  • Responses to Bush’s 2003 State of the Union Address

    Mr. Speaker, Vice President Cheney, members of Congress, distinguished citizens and fellow citizens, every year, by law and by custom, we meet here to consider the state of the union. This year, we gather in this chamber deeply aware of decisive days that lie ahead. You and I serve our country in a time of…

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  • The Davos Problem: “It is time to #TaxTheRich”

    Jenny Ricks, the global convenor for Fight Inequality Alliance wrote, “Policy choices made by governments and international institutions throughout the pandemic have fallen woefully short of protecting people from the impact of multiple crises. Spiralling inflation, sky-rocketing energy bills and fuel prices, as well as high and still rising food prices, spelled disaster for so…

  • Ukraine War: Why We Need a Real Debate

    The publisher and editorial director of The Nation, Katrina Vanden Heuvel writes, “It’s time to challenge the orthodox view on the war in Ukraine. As Russia’s illegal and brutal assault enters its fourth month, the impact on Europe, the Global South and the world is already profound.”

  • Biden on Taiwan: “A Casus Belli”

    Chas Freeman, a former U.S. diplomat, businessman, and current chair of Projects International Inc. says, “This is the fourth time in a year that the White House has had to walk back a pledge by President Biden to go to war with China over Taiwan that is inconsistent with both the terms of U.S.-China normalization…

  • Epidemiologist: “‘No doubt” the U.S. in middle of new Covid surge”

    The author of the popular Covid-19 newsletter, Your Local Epidemiologist, says there is “no doubt we are in the middle of a case surge in the U.S. Unfortunately, it’s not getting communicated properly.” According to Katelyn Jetelina, current transmission rates (higher than 50 reported cases per 100,000 people) across 66 percent of counties correspond to…

  • Bereavement Activists Push for Support of Covid-19 Orphans

    Media outlets are increasingly focusing on the plight of children across the U.S. who have been orphaned by the Covid-19 pandemic. But advocates for the bereaved and pediatricians say that too little has been done to materially and emotionally support this growing group of young people, who still have “no return to normal.” An updated…

  • Biden in Asia: * Threat of War with China * Need to End Korean War

    Christine Ahn, executive director of Women Cross DMZ, said: “Biden must use his trip to South Korea to take the lead on diplomacy with North Korea by abandoning failed approaches of sanctions and pressure and instead focusing on building trust and reducing tensions. Most important would be officially ending the Korean War with a peace…

  • In Upcoming Summit, Latin America Calling out U.S. Double Standards

    “This is because many Latin American and Caribbean governments are unhappy with the U.S. government’s decision to exclude Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua from the summit. The countries of the hemisphere have grown accustomed to U.S. double standards when the arguments of democracy and human rights are flaunted. Who can forget that the United States managed…

  • Congress Goes All in With War

    The Senate could vote on a $40 billion Ukraine aid package as soon as Wednesday. DAVID SWANSON, [email protected], @davidcnswanson Executive director of WorldBeyondWar.org, Swanson said today: “The pretense that there are ten (or even one) members of Congress who can be relied on to oppose warmaking is dead. War opposition in the public theater of Congress is purely for…

  • Crisis in Science Labs: The Supply Chain Spiral

    Supply chain disruptions are affecting scientific lab work across the globe, from worsening vaccine inequity to delaying new research on both Covid-19 and other vaccines. Lee Riley, a professor of epidemiology and infectious disease, told IPA that we can expect similar problems if the case numbers continue to surge in this winter.

  • Facebook Lifting Ban on Neo-Nazi Azov Battalion “Stunning”

    “‘The ‘grand wizards’ of battling fake news have even dabbled with Holocaust distortion, downplaying WWII-era paramilitaries who slaughtered Jews as mere ‘historic figures’ and Ukrainian nationalist leaders, while attacking members of the U.S. Congress who had denounced Ukraine’s glorification of Nazi collaborators.'”

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