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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  • * New Healthcare Ads * Corrupted Finance Committee?

    MIKE FARRELL, CLARK NEWHALL Farrell is an actor best known for playing Dr. B.J. Hunnicutt on M*A*S*H. He appears in a series of just-released TV ads calling for healthcare reform. Available for a limited number of interviews, Farrell is author of the book Just Call Me Mike: A Journey to Actor and Activist. One of…

  • Mother’s Day: A Day Against War?

    The first Mother’s Day proclamation, an impassioned plea for peace, was written by Julia Ward Howe in 1870; see here. SUSAN GALLEYMORE, via Karen Pomer Galleymore, author of the new book Long Time Passing: Mothers Speak About War and Terror, said today: “During a trip to Iraq in 2004 to visit my soldier son on…

  • Doctors Arrested at Senate “Roundtable” on Healthcare

    Doctors and other advocates of a national single-payer health system — also known as improved Medicare for All — directly confronted senators at a Senate Finance Committee “roundtable” on health reform today. Videos are available here and C-SPAN coverage is here. One by one, single-payer advocates in the audience stood up and asked why single-payer…

  • Wolves Targeted

    AP reports: “Wolves in parts of the northern Rockies and the Great Lakes region come off the endangered species list on Monday, opening them to public hunts in some states for the first time in decades.” RODGER SCHLICKEISEN, SUZANNE ASHA STONE President of Defenders of Wildlife, Schlickeisen said: “This delisting is a potentially disastrous turn…

  • AIPAC

    The American Israel Public Affairs Committee is holding its annual convention. Speakers include Democratic and Republican leaders from both houses of Congress. On Friday, the administration dropped espionage-related charges against two former officials of AIPAC. MEDEA BENJAMIN RAE ABILEAH Benjamin is co-founder and Abileah is national organizer of the peace group CodePink. During Israeli President…

  • Kagan on the Supreme Court?

    Solicitor General Elena Kagan is widely reported to be a leading contender for the Supreme Court position being vacated by David Souter. FRANCIS BOYLE Professor of law at the University of Illinois, Boyle is author of Tackling America’s Toughest Questions. He said today: “As dean of the Harvard Law School, Kagan hired Bush’s outgoing director…

  • Swine Flu and Factory Farms

    ROBERT WALLACE Wallace is visiting professor in the department of geography at the University of Minnesota and author of the forthcoming book Farming Human Pathogens: Ecological Resilience and Evolutionary Process. He writes a blog called “Farming Pathogens: Disease in a world of our own making.” His most recent piece is “The NAFTA Flu,” available at…

  • Torture, State Secrets and Spanish Prosecution

    FRIDA BERRIGAN In his news conference last night, Obama seemed to claim that the detention center at Guantanamo Bay was closed: “We have rejected the false choice between our security and our ideals by closing the detention center at Guantanamo Bay.” Berrigan is an organizer with Witness Against Torture, which is protesting outside the White…

  • Swine Flu: Budgets and Immigration Status

    DAVID KATZ Katz is a family physician at CommuniCare Health Centers in Yolo County, California. He said today: “We have had decreased capacity in our clinics in dealing with something like swine flu because we’ve had county and state cutbacks over the last year. … “CommuniCare is a network of community health centers that cares…

  • Swine Flu and Sick Days

    BARBARA GAULT, via Elisabeth Crum Director of research for the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, Gault said today: “The Centers for Disease Control has recommended that those who are sick should stay home from work or school to avoid infecting others. “However, analyses of Bureau of Labor Statistics and other data conducted by the Institute…

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