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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  • Pelosi Claims No Bush Crime, No Cause for Impeachment

    The following exchange occurred on “The View” on ABC this morning: Co-host Joy Behar: “You’ve ruled against impeaching George Bush and Dick Cheney. And now Kucinich is trying to pass that. Why do you, why do you insist on not impeaching these people so that the world and America can really see the crimes that…

  • A Resurgence of Separatist Terrorism in Iraq

    AP is reporting: “Suicide bombers, including at least three women, struck Shiite pilgrims in Baghdad and Kurdish protesters in the northern city of Kirkuk on Monday, killing at least 57 people…” STEVE CONNORS and MOLLY BINGHAM Connors and Bingham are co-directors of the documentary “Meeting Resistance,” which features interviews with insurgents in Iraq. Connors said…

  • Obama’s Economic Team

    NAOMI KLEIN Available for a limited number of D.C.-based interviews, Klein is author of the book The Shock Doctrine and the recent piece “Obama’s Chicago Boys.” The piece notes: “Barack Obama waited just three days after Hillary Clinton pulled out of the race to declare, on CNBC, ‘Look. I am a pro-growth, free-market guy. I…

  • Activists Challenge the Siege of Gaza

    The Free Gaza Movement is organizing a boat of activists to enter Gaza by sea via Cyprus. Among the activists: HEDY EPSTEIN Born in Germany, Epstein is a survivor of the Nazi Holocaust. She said today: “I wish Sen. Obama had talked about walls not only in Berlin, but also when he was in Israel,…

  • Impeachment on the Table?

    The House Judiciary Committee is holding a hearing today “on the Imperial Presidency of George W. Bush and possible legal responses.” The Cleveland Plain Dealer reports: “While Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers of Michigan is not billing the hearing as an effort to impeach Bush, Cleveland Democratic Rep. Dennis Kucinich will attend to make his…

  • Minimum Wage Hike

    The federal minimum wage will increase 70 cents per hour Thursday to $6.55 per hour. HOLLY SKLAR Co-author of the report “A Just Minimum Wage: Good For Workers, Business and Our Future” and the book Raise The Floor: Wages and Policies That Work for All of Us Sklar said today: “The July 24 minimum wage…

  • Foreign Policy

    PHYLLIS BENNIS A fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies, Bennis just returned to Washington, D.C., from the Israeli-occupied West Bank. A piece she wrote is scheduled to be published at The Nation this afternoon. PEPE ESCOBAR Author of Red Zone Blues: A snapshot of Baghdad during the surge and Globalistan: An Antidote to ‘The…

  • Implications of Torture

    RICK SHENKMAN Editor of the History News Network, Shenkman is author of the just-released book Just How Stupid Are We? Facing the Truth About the American Voter. He said today: “Despite Watergate, Republicans have never given up their belief in an imperial presidency. If the president does something, it’s not illegal, was Nixon’s line of…

  • Can the President Detain Anyone Indefinitely?

    Ali Al-Marri, who was living in Peoria, Illinois, with his wife and children, was awaiting trial in 2003. A month before his trial, he was deemed an ‘enemy combatant’ by the president. He has been held in solitary confinement ever since. On Tuesday, the Fourth Circuit ruled that the president has the authority to detain…

  • * Stagflation * The Military Drain

    DOUG HENWOOD Henwood is author of the book Wall Street and editor of Left Business Observer. He said today: “The U.S. economy continues to be dominated by the contradictory forces of stagnation and inflation — a reincarnation of that 1970s monster, stagflation. This morning we learned that inflation is running at a 5 percent annual…

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