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  • 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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  • Turkish Prime Minister’s Miscalculation

    “As the protesters who remain in Gezi Park regroup and plan their next move, the Prime Minister has called for rallies of his own this weekend as a show of force. He may think that exacerbating the polarization in the country is a way to consolidate his own base of constituents and prevail over opposition…

  • 37,000 “Thank You’s” for Snowden — and Counting

    “Many Americans understand that Snowden has done something profoundly brave and patriotic in defense of the Bill of Rights. With much-touted ‘congressional oversight’ almost meaningless and secret surveillance courts mere rubber stamps for the Obama administration, many Americans across the political spectrum are asking deeper questions — and they’re getting official doubletalk in response. “The…

  • Do Leaks Hurt National Security, Or Do the Policies they Expose? — From Indochina to the Mideast

    “Fifty years ago, U.S. executive branch officials such as Henry Kissinger dropped two million tons of bombs on tiny Laos, as much as was dropped on all of Europe and the Pacific in World War II, murdering, maiming and making refugees of tens of thousands of innocent rice-farmers, and totally destroying a 700-year old civilization…

  • Data Mining of Telecom Metadata is “More Dangerous than Intercepting Conversations”

    “The newly public National Security Agency records about PRISM and similar operations demonstrate that metadata about electronic communication is actually more dangerous to democracy than intercepting conversations. That is because the NSA’s analysis of this information is based on mathematical formulas that use guilt by association to construct imaginary networks of people who might, or…

  • Edward Snowden a “Profile in Courage” Says Church Committee Whistleblower

    “Unfortunately, these efforts at oversight have largely failed. Judge Vinson’s order to Verizon proves beyond cavil that the secret FISA court is a rubber stamp for the indiscriminate seizure of all sorts of personal records. … “Seventy percent of the federal government’s intelligence budget now goes to private contractors. Far from overseeing the agencies, members…

  • Samantha Power’s “Weaponization of Human Rights”

    “Samantha Power has shown a limitless faith in the therapeutic power of military violence, as long as there are a few human rights lawyers straggling along as camp followers. Her career-making first book, subtitled America and the Age of Genocide, fails to mention any of the postwar genocides that Washington armed and abetted, a highly…

  • Millions of Domestic Phone Records Collected by Government

    “Been hollering into the deep dark shadows of the surveillance state since October 2001 and then via the press starting in 2006 about this Orwellian threat. “Now we have an order for ALL call records from millions upon millions of Verizon subscribers without probable cause just because the government wants them. “Talk about profiling. “FISA…

  • ENDA: Why Is Employment Discrimination Against Gays Legal?

    Jonathan Capehart of the Washington Post wrote today that Michelle Obama “was speaking … at a Democratic Party fundraiser in Washington last night when [Ellen] Sturtz heckled her about her husband’s lack of action on ending discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) federal employees.” … “There is currently no federal law that explicitly…

  • Bradley Manning in Court: “Show Trial” or Last Chance for Justice?

    “Defense lawyer David Coombs recounted a poignant turning point during Bradley’s time in Iraq. On Christmas Eve, 2009, an Army vehicle narrowly avoided injury after an explosive detonated. But in evading the explosive, the U.S. vehicle drove into a civilian car, carrying five Iraqis, including three children. His fellow soldiers celebrated into the night, cheering…

  • Turkish Uprising?

    “The Taksim excursion park protests cut across the clichéd secularist-Islamist divide that dominates the western image of Turkish politics. They give voice to widespread frustrations with the prime minister’s arrogant and dismissive treatment of all forms of dissent. From his pro-business urban development projects to his Syria foreign policy to his daily pronouncements on public…

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