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  • Uprisings: Online Resouces

    With protests continuing, here is a partial list of online resources: For Libya: #Feb17; CNN’s Ben Wedeman; @EnoughGaddafi; For Bahrain: #Feb14, @OnlineBahrain; For Yemen: #Feb3; @JNovak_Yemen; Palestinian: #Mar15 Gulf: @dr_davidson, @tobycraigjones For Saudi Arabia: on Twitter: #Mar11; Webpages and blogs: rasid.com, ysoof.com/blog/?p=242, saudiwoman.wordpress.com, alasmari.wordpress.com, saudijeans.org To translate: translate.google.com Based in the U.S., but with extensive contacts…

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  • “A New Bipartisan Consensus Against Low Income People”

    The president’s budget is a prosaic austerity plan that inflicts disproportionate pain on low income Americans. Fundamental questions about the costs of war and the fairness of tax cuts for the rich have been avoided by the decision to narrowly target non-security “discretionary” spending to bear the weight of deficit reduction. It used to be…

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  • Challenges for Change in Algeria

    Tunisia and Egypt are relatively centralized states, Algeria not so, neither politically, nor culturally, nor geographically. Historically, the interior has been difficult to control, and there is no guarantee that the rest of the country would rally to the protests taking place in the capital as in the case of Egypt. The Algerian regime is…

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  • “Mubarak has fallen. The regime didn’t”

    CAIRO — Mubarak has fallen. The regime didn’t. We still have the same cabinet appointed by [Mubarak]. The emergency state is still enforced. Old detainees are still in detentions and new ones since the 25th of January remain missing. There is no public apology for the killing. We hear several executives are being prosecuted, including…

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  • Time to forge new, democratic system

    CAIRO — Last night, February 11, Cairo was the scene of what may well have been the largest street party in world history.  It was incredibly powerful and moving.  Of course, the night’s festivities marked both an end and a beginning. Now is the time for Egypt’s judges, other legal professionals, diplomats, other negotiators, intellectuals,…

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  • Our Man in Cairo

    With Mubarak’s departure, the focus now falls on his chosen successor, Omar Suleiman. According to a classified American diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks, Suleiman was Israel’s pick to succeed Mubarak. But there’s little doubt that he was also the choice of the United States, or at least of one particular American agency with which he…

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  • Online Resources on Egypt and Beyond

    With protests against the Egyptian regime continuing, here is a partial list of resources: A critical Facebook page is “We are all Khaled Said” — also see the associated webpage elshaheeed.co.uk. (For background on Khaled Said, see IPA news release.) See: egyprotest-defense.blogspot.com; live updates at guardian.co.uk; Al-Jazeera English live blog and video, or via YouTube:…

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  • Hungry Gazans Feed Egyptian Troops

    RAFAH, Feb 9, 2011 (IPS) – Mustapha Suleiman, 27, from J Block east of the Rafah crossing with Egypt, crosses through gaps in the iron fence on the border carrying bread, water, meat cans and a handful of vegetables for Egyptian soldiers stationed on the other side. [See at Inter Press Service]

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  • Egypt’s military-industrial complex

    With US-made tear gas canisters fired on protesters in Cairo, Washington’s role in arming Egypt is under the spotlight In early January 2010, Bob Livingston, a former chairman of the appropriations committee in the US House of Representatives, flew to Cairo accompanied by William Miner, one of his staff. The two men were granted meetings…

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  • Uprising Pays Off -– Sort of

    Today I went to a town only 23 kilometers south of Tahrir Square. The plan was to see if the 11-day uprising in Egypt has produced any benefits so far – just by way of finding something different from the insecurity and chaos in Cairo. Kirdasa, a small town known for its flower nurseries and…

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  • “Three Basic Questions” the Media Should be Asking in Assange Asylum Case

    ROBERT NAIMAN, naiman at justforeignpolicy.org, www.justforeignpolicy.org Robert Naiman is policy director of Just Foreign Policy. The group organized and delivered this appeal signed by prominent Americans urging Ecuador to accept Julian Assange’s asylum request in late June. Naiman said today: “As Americans who appealed to Ecuador to grant Julian Assange’s request for political asylum from…

  • Romney Campaign’s Claims About Paul Ryan’s Stock Trade Inconsistent with Disclosure Form

    At a meeting with Congressional leaders on September 18, 2008, then Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke famously broke the news to leaders of Congress that they would have to approve a giant bank bailout to avert a meltdown of the financial system. Since last weekend, reports have circulated that Congressman…

  • Romney “Tax Issues Cheat Sheet” Released

    LEE SHEPPARD, via Wendy Harris, Wendy_Harris at tax.org Available for a limited number of interviews, Sheppard is a contributing editor at Tax Analysts, an influential provider of tax news and analysis. She just published Your Mitt Romney Tax Issues Cheat Sheet. Sheppard said: “It is often said that the rich get rich and stay rich…

  • Social Security at 77: “Budget Target”

    VIRGINIA RENO, vreno at nasi.org, www.nasi.org Reno is vice president for income security policy for the National Academy of Social Insurance. Today they released the video Social Security: Just the Facts: HEIDI HARTMANN, via Caroline Dobuzinskis, dobuzinskis at iwpr.org, www.iwpr.org Dr. Hartmann is president of the Institute for Women’s Policy Research. She said today: “Social…

  • NBC Under Fire for Post-Olympics Transition to War Games

    Nine Nobel Peace Laureates issued an open letter to the Chairman of NBC Entertainment, as well as General Wesley Clark and others involved in the new “reality” show that premiered on NBC last night — “Stars Earn Stripes” — calling on them to walk away from the show immediately. In the letter, the Laureates –…

  • The Ryan Budget Plan

    WILLIAM HARTUNG, whartung at ciponline.org, www.ciponline.org William Hartung is a fellow at the Center for International Policy. He said today: “Over the next decade, Paul Ryan’s budget plan would throw hundred of billions of dollars at the Pentagon beyond what the department is even asking for. While posing as a budget cutter who makes the…

  • The Ryan Choice: “A Collective Gasp from Wisconsin”

    ROBERT KRAIG, robert.kraig at citizenactionwi.org, www.citizenactionwi.org Kraig is executive director of Citizen Action of Wisconsin. He said today: “Paul Ryan is a smooth politician, but beneath the optimistic rhetoric, genial demeanor, and wonky reputation, the substance of his budget proposals would have devastating consequences for the freedom to have a fair shot at the American…

  • Nuclear Protesters Raising Fundamental Issues, Not Posing “Security Concerns”

    KnoxNews.com is reporting: “A federal grand jury has returned a three-count indictment against three Y-12 protesters, consolidating the previous charges lodged against them and adding another felony count of ‘depredation’ of government property, involving cutting, painting and defacing that resulted in damages exceeding $1,000. The new charge carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in…

  • Nature Study on Diminishing Groundwater Resources “Another Reason to Ban Fracking”

    The journal Nature just released a study titled “Demand for Water Outstrips Supply.” WENONAH HAUTER, Kate Fried, kfried at fwwatch.org Executive director of Food & Water Watch, Hauter said today: “Nothing shows the dangerous connection between drought and fracking more than the study released by the journal Nature this week, which shows groundwater demand is…

  • Chevron’s Latest Disaster in California

    AP reports: “Investigators were looking at how a small, seemingly insignificant leak at one of the country’s biggest oil refineries quickly unraveled into an intense fire that sent acrid black smoke into the sky and hundreds of people to hospitals with health complaints. “This latest disruption at Chevron’s refinery in this city about 10 miles…

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