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  • What We Should be Talking About: Romney’s Foreign Policy Advisers

    John Kennedy used to say, “Domestic policy can hurt us; foreign policy can kill us.”

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  • Dying to Live in Mexico

    In 2011, some 12,000 people were murdered in situations presumably related to the drug trafficking industry in Mexico. In 2010, the number was more than 15,000 killed. Between December 2006, when Felipe Calderón of the conservative National Action Party (PAN) took office and declared a “war on drug traffickers” and January 2012, depending on the…

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  • THE PAYROLL TAX CUT: Talk about a Ponzi Scheme!

    By Gwendolyn Mink Is President Obama trying to kill Social Security without explicitly saying so? He put Social Security “on the table” for consideration by his Deficit Commission — even though Social Security has not contributed to creating or sustaining the deficit/debt in the first place. He kept Social Security on the table when he…

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  • Stop the Cuts to the Social Safety Net!

    Medicaid cuts will injure communities of color disproportionately. 11 percent of Asian Americans, 14 percent of Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders, 27 percent of Latinos, and 27 percent of African Americans gain access to health care through Medicaid. Medicaid cuts will injure women disproportionately. Women account for 70 percent of Medicaid participants. Social Security is…

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  • Fires Near Los Alamos Nuclear Facility

    The forests surrounding Los Alamos National Laboratory have burned and are certain to burn again with some regularity, whether from lightning or human causes.  If too many trees are allowed to remain near laboratory facilities, those too will sooner or later burn, despite everyone’s best efforts. We are not as yet very concerned about radioactive…

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  • Case Against Cutting Social Security

    The case against cutting Social Security is strong. · Social Security benefits are modest by any measure and are already being cut – by raising the age of eligibility for full benefits and by deducting ever-rising Medicare premiums from benefit checks. · The cuts already in law add up to a19 percent reduction for people…

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  • Samantha Power, Libya, and Selective Memory of Genocide

    It might seem a bit surprising to see Samantha Power on the National Security Council and working with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who Power famously called a “monster” during the 2008 presidential campaign. But this was a heat-of-battle bit of name-calling, not a designation based on any difference in outlook. Both women are hardliners,…

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  • Low-Income Women Pushed to the Sidelines

    Low-income women have been invisible in budget deliberations thus far – yet they will be injured disproportionately by cuts to income programs like Social Security and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families [TANF], as well by cuts to Medicaid, Medicare and Food Stamps. Despite the prolonged recession, income assistance to low-income families has shriveled over the past decade, providing…

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  • Trumka Questioned on Wisconsin, Two-Party System, Journalism and Obama

    Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO, stopped by the National Press Club this afternoon. Trumka underlined the need for economic equality in a 30 minute address before fielding questions submitted by the audience and selected by NPC President Mark Hamrick. Hamrick asked variations of three questions submitted by IPA. Here’s a transcript of those exchanges:…

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  • Herman: U.S., NATO Hypocrisy on Libya Precludes Their Action

    I’m surprised that Phyllis Bennis doesn’t recognize the problems of what we may call “clean hands” — and hypocrisy — in her call for Security Council action on Libya. Do the United States, UK, France and Germany have clean hands that would justify antiwar, anti-imperialist and humanitarians calling upon them to act against Libya? They…

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  • Obama SOTU Foreign Policy Myths

    “The myth of an entrenched and timeless conflict between the two sects dating back to the 7th century serves as an explanation for the current instability in the region. This idea is so entrenched in public discourse that the president channeled it in his State of the Union address.”

  • Obama’s SOTU Push for TPP — a “Death Sentence”

    “The TPP will effectively take some patients backwards in time to the dark ages of cancer treatment. It will prevent too many people with cancer — and other life threatening illnesses — from accessing the new treatments they need to stay alive. When science has the potential for them to be thrivers like me, living…

  • Is U.S. Facilitating Rigged Elections Process in Haiti?

    “Completing Haiti’s election process is important, but respecting minimum standards for fair elections is essential. The Obama administration’s insistence on imposing leaders elected through fraud and violence will condemn Haiti to years of unrest.”

  • Implications of Guatemala Showdown on U.S.-backed War Crimes Prosecutions

    “Abrams was perhaps the key figure in U.S. Central American policy during the time of the slaughter. He later became a top adviser to the Bush Jr. White House dealing with the Middle East, where the U.S. has mounted similar operations in support of killer forces. For example, in Iraq, in the capacity as a…

  • Flint Water Crisis a “Violation of the Human Right to Water”

    “In 2014, Flint’s emergency manager disconnected the city from the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department and started providing residents with water from the Flint River. Unfortunately, the proper corrosion controls were not put in place, which resulted in lead leaching into Flint’s drinking water, poisoning residents for over a year.”

  • Dynamics of China’s Sell Off

    “Stock turbulence is a great example of why we need a Financial Transaction Tax — Bernie Sanders has been recommending this. A tiny tax on financial translations carried out by institutions would raise hundreds of billions of dollars and it would lessen the volatility.”

  • The Myth of Entrenched Sunni-Shi’i Conflict

    “The apparent emergence of a Sunni-Shi‘i divide in the current Middle East stems from the general instability of the region coupled with a power struggle between Saudi Arabia and Iran. In other words, the sectarian conflict is a product of political calculations as opposed to entrenched theological differences.”

  • North Korea’s Nuclear Weapons

    “The only way to control the further spread of nuclear weapons and unforeseeable nuclear disaster, is for the U.S. and the other nuclear nations, Russia, UK, France, China, Israel, India, and Pakistan, to give up their nuclear weapons and negotiate a treaty for the total abolition of nuclear weapons under strict and effective international monitoring…

  • Folly of Giving Federal Land “Back”

    “It isn’t necessarily tyranny if the federal government doesn’t behave as you would like. Those who don’t like the federal government shouldn’t take out their anger on federal public lands, which provide priceless ecosystem and watershed goods and services and belong to all Americans of this and future generations.”

  • The Clintons’ Paid-Speech Bonanza

    “That nearly 38 percent of Hillary Clinton’s current personal wealth of approximately $31.3 million was accumulated during the brief period between her departure from the State Department and her run for the presidency underscores the extent to which she is a beneficiary of big-business’ financial largesse.”

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