Blog

  • 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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  • Analysts Denounce 100 Reps. Urging Super Committee Austerity

    Fox News features a piece claiming “Moderate Lawmakers Lead Insurrection, Urge Super Committee to Defy Leadership and Go Big.” Fox states: “As the Super Committee butts against a hard and fast deadline for reducing the deficit, a Republican and a Democratic lawmaker on Sunday say they must be willing to buck their leadership and go…

  • Greece: From the Frying Pan, Into the Fire?

    MARK WEISBROT, mweisbrot at cepr.net; also via Dan Beeton, beeton at cepr.net Weisbrot is co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research and is just back from Europe. The group recently released a statement: “G20 Continues With Failed Policies in Europe, Putting Regional and Global Economy at Risk.” COSTAS PANAYOTAKIS, [in NYC] cpanayotakis at…

  • Israeli Forces Commandeer Gaza Boats

    The group U.S. Boat to Gaza has just released a statement that begins: “Canadian and Irish ships, the Tahrir and the Saoirse, sailing with Freedom Waves to Gaza have been illegally boarded by the Israeli military in international waters, about 50 nautical miles from the coast of Gaza, around 9:30 am EDT. The IDF [Israeli…

  • Poverty Rate in Most States and Among Children Lowered by New Measure

    SHAWN FREMSTAD, fremstad at cepr.net, Alan Barber, alanbbarber at gmail.com Fremstad is senior research associate with the Center for Economic and Policy Research and just wrote the piece “New Obama Poverty Measure Lowers Poverty Rates in Most States and Among Children.” The piece states: “On Friday, November 4, the Census Bureau is holding a webinar…

  • WikiLeaks Reveals U.S. Ties to Honduran Drug Dealer

    DANA FRANK, danafrank at ucsc.edu Frank is professor of history at the University of California, Santa Cruz and author of many books, including Bananeras: Women Transforming the Banana Unions of Latin America, which examines the banana workers’ unions of Honduras. She recently wrote “WikiLeaks Honduras: U.S. Linked to Brutal Businessman.” She said today: “New Wikileaks…

  • “Freedom Wave to Gaza” Approaching Shore

    The group U.S. Boat to Gaza has released a statement: “The Canadian ship Tahrir and the Irish ship Saoirse have successfully reached international waters, initiating the ‘Freedom Wave to Gaza.’ The boats have embarked from Turkey and are on the Mediterranean Sea. In all, the two boats carry 27 passengers from Canada, Ireland, U.S., Palestine,…

  • G-20: * Greece * Financial Transaction Tax

    COSTAS PANAYOTAKIS, [in NYC] cpanayotakis at gmail.com Panayotakis is associate professor of sociology at the New York City College of Technology at CUNY and author of the forthcoming book “Remaking Scarcity: From Capitalist Inefficiency to Economic Democracy.” He said today: “Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou’s attempt to escape growing popular opposition to austerity by calling…

  • * Oakland General Strike * “Veterans of the 99%”

    AP is reporting this morning: “Oakland prepared Wednesday to again become the epicenter of the Occupy Wall Street movement as local organizers aided by labor unions and advocacy groups finalized plans for a broad-based call to action that was expected to include marches, pickets outside banks, school shutdowns and an attempt to close the nation’s…

  • Greek Government “Blackmailing” Public

    COSTAS PANAYOTAKIS, cpanayotakis at gmail.com Panayotakis is associate professor of sociology at the New York City College of Technology at CUNY and author of the forthcoming book “Remaking Scarcity: From Capitalist Inefficiency to Economic Democracy.” He said today: “Faced with escalating opposition and resistance to the austerity measures it has imposed on the Greek population…

  • As Violence in Afghanistan Escalates, Drone Trial Starts Tomorrow

    There have been a string of attacks on Western forces in Afghanistan the last several days, killing over 20 troops. On Tuesday the trial of the Hancock Drone Resisters, 38 people from throughout Central New York and beyond who converged on Syracuse, New York on April 22, 2011 to protest the piloting of hunter-killer Reaper…

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