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News Items

  • Election Reforms: Falling short

    WASHINGTON — Proponents of progressive election reform gave cautious approval to the recent report issued by a commission assigned to investigate the improvement of federal elections. Many critics, however, point to several obstacles that remain in the way of free and fair elections throughout the United States. The report, issued by the National Commission on Federal Election Reform headed by former Presidents Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford, was presented to President Bush. Among its recommendations are provisions regarding increases in equipment standards and stepped-up federal funding for the administration of elections.

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  • Son of Star Wars: Another arms race?

    WASHINGTON — Reports emerging from the Pentagon about plans to test a “Space Bomber” are drawing accusations that the U.S. government is attempting to engage in another arms race. The bomber, a spacecraft reportedly capable of destroying targets on the other side of the globe within 30 minutes, is a key component of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s plan to modernize U.S. weaponry. The satellite is currently under production by NASA and Lockheed Martin, a leading military contractor. Pentagon claims that the bomber can cause greater and deeper ground damage from a virtually unassailable height have many critics questioning it as…

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  • ExxonMobil: Facing a boycott

    ExxonMobil, one of the biggest corporations on the planet, is now facing a boycott spearheaded by activist groups protesting the company’s policies at home and abroad. The boycott was launched by PressurePoint, a grassroots organization looking to “take real action on climate change and corporate influence,” according to Chris Doran, campaigns director for the group. “The U.S. government’s climate change policy is the ExxonMobil policy,” Doran says. “What sort of democracy do we have when one company can buy off our political process for its own gains?” ExxonMobil is a charter member of the Global Climate Coalition, an influential industry…

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  • Beyond the Ford-Firestone Uproar: Critics blast lack of regulation, accountability in SUV safety

    WASHINGTON – Recent congressional hearings probed the accountability of Ford and Firestone in many incidents where car or tire malfunctioned, causing injury or death. The hearings also questioned the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the federal government’s chief regulator of automobile safety, and its role in providing the public with adequate information. While the blame-placing among corporate executives and congressional subcommittees occurred on Capitol Hill, several analysts decried the lack of accountability being demanded of the corporations involved. Joan Claybrook, president of Public Citizen, pointed to a lack of regulation of sport utility vehicles and rollover standards.

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  • NEWS BRIEFING WITH LAWRENCE SUMMERS, SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY RAYMOND OFFENHEISER, PRESIDENT, OXFAM

    Questions from IPA appear below in bold HEADLINE: NEWS BRIEFING WITH LAWRENCE SUMMERS, SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY RAYMOND OFFENHEISER, PRESIDENT, OXFAM DEBT RELIEF TO POOR COUNTRIES AND OXFAM EDUCATION NOW AWARD INTRODUCTION: MARTA ARIAS LOCATION: NATIONAL PRESS CLUB, WASHINGTON D.C. BODY:

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  • Ten Real Reasons To Impeach Clinton

    We all seem to have lost our sense of proportion. Why are the political leaders of the United States and the major media talking of impeaching Bill Clinton for lies about sex, surely not the most important sins of his administration? If Clinton is to be impeached, why do it for frivolous reasons? I can think of at least ten reasons to impeach him, for acts far more serious than his dalliance with Monica Lewinsky or his lies to Kenneth Starr. I am speaking of matters of life and death for large numbers of people. 1. Clinton approved, very early…

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  • Autopsy Of A Disaster: The U.S. Sanctions Policy On Iraq

    For a shorter version of this timeline, click here. Myth: The Sanctions Will be Lifted When Iraq Complies with the U.N. Inspections April 3, 1991: U.N. Security Council passes Resolution 687 which states that upon “the completion by Iraq of all actions contemplated in” specific paragraphs of the resolution, “the prohibitions against financial transactions … shall have no further force or effect.” The paragraphs cited have to do with weapons inspections. Other paragraphs in the resolution have to do with “return of all Kuwaiti property seized by Iraq” and Iraqi liability for losses and damage resulting from Iraq’s occupation of…

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  • CUNY Hunger Strikers: Divest from Israel

    Eight CUNY (City University of New York) students, staff, and faculty, began their “hunger strike on the steps of the CUNY Graduate Center demanding the university divest” from Israel ten days ago. See their most recent news release. The group states: “The hunger strike, which has occupied the main entrance to the CUNY Graduate Center…

  • U.S. Veto Expected Today on Ceasefire and Aid for Gaza

    AP reports: “The U.N. Security Council scheduled a vote Wednesday on a resolution which demands ‘an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire in Gaza respected by all parties.’ U.N. diplomats said the United States is likely to veto it.” … Mokhiber noted that in the face of the U.S. veto, the U.N. General Assembly “should call…

  • DNC Remains in “a Bubble” Insulated from “Anger and Disgust”

    The DNC leadership “remains largely within a bubble insulated from the anger and disgust – toward the party – that is widespread among countless Democrats and other Americans. They want the Democratic Party to really put up a fight, while its leaders mainly talk about putting up a fight.

  • Can Uniting for Peace Help Save the International Legal Order?

    “The UNGA should call out the genocide by name, strip Israel of its credentials, convene under Uniting for Peace to mandate a protection force, call for a complete military embargo and robust sanctions against the regime, demand a ceasefire, and take action to hold all perpetrators to account — whether political officials, soldiers, settlers, or…

  • “The Witkoff Massacre”; Fasters at UN Demand Aid to Starving Palestinians

    United Nations Secretary General António Guterres said today: “I am appalled by the reports of Palestinians killed and injured while seeking aid in Gaza yesterday.” Last year, Guterres stated: “We have failed the people of Gaza.” The following have been fasting since May 22 outside the U.S. Mission to the UN, just across the street from UN…

  • First DNC Executive Committee Meeting in Five Months; Livestream Available

    Their petition urges the DNC to “convene an emergency meeting of all its members—fully open to the public—as soon as possible.” The petition adds that “the predatory, extreme and dictatorial actions of the Trump administration call for an all-out commensurate response, which so far has been terribly lacking from the Democratic Party.” Among the 7,000 signers are…

  • “Gaza’s Aid System Isn’t Broken. It’s Working Exactly as Designed”

    “The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation had promised something revolutionary with this initiative. … What it delivered instead was the purest distillation of colonial humanitarianism — aid as an instrument of control, dehumanisation, and humiliation, dispensed by armed contractors under the watchful eye of the occupying military.”

  • Day 600: Palestine … and Poetry

    “And she is too weak to stand, too weak to withstand not being able to make her hill, and she starts crying now for her father who was killed, her three brothers killed, her infant sister who died of hunger, for the sky that used to be clear of warplanes, for the hill she is…

  • Focusing on Children

    As Congress votes on President Trump’s budget bill, experts warn that cuts severely impact children in the U.S. in particular. Trump’s first 100 days in office were also detrimental to children. 

  • “Guns and Bombs Will Not End this Genocide”

    “Why did he do this? He did it because he lost hope. The rightwingers are saying that the protests are fomenting violence. It’s the opposite: Meaningful protests give people hope.”

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