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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  • Is Biden Allowing Ukraine to Strike Deep in Russia the Latest Provocation?

    “Earlier this year, President Biden gave Ukraine the greenlight to strike Russian border regions with U.S.-provided weapons, including shorter-range rockets fired by the HIMARS. A few months later, Ukraine launched its invasion of Kursk, and Ukrainian officials began pushing hard for the U.S. to support longer-range strikes inside Russia.

  • What’s Next for Social Security and Medicare?

    Experts caution the public on the differences between Trump’s campaign promises on Social Security, Medicare and drug prices… and the reality. 

  • Huckabee: “No Such Thing as a Palestinian”

    “Huckabee will be fully supportive of Israel annexing the rest of the West Bank and East Jerusalem because he erroneously believes God gave all of historic Palestine to the Jewish people, as if God were a real estate agent who believed in redlining and ethnic supremacy.” 

  • Congress Is About to Gift Trump Sweeping Powers to Crush Political Dissent

    “In the past year, accusations of support for terrorism have been freely lobbed at student protesters, aid workers in Gaza, and even mainstream publications like the New York Times. In unscrupulous hands, the powers of the proposed law could essentially turn the Treasury Department into an enforcement arm of Canary Mission and other hard-line groups…

  • Trump Turns to Hawks

    Rubio has also urged overthrowing Latin American governments, at one point posting a graphic image of Gaddafi’s murder in an apparent threat to Venezuela’s Maduro.

  • Erdogan’s “Crocodile Tears” Will not Protect Palestinians from Israel’s Genocide

    “Erdogan’s crocodile tears will not protect Palestinians from Israel’s genocide. He and the rest of the government of Turkiye are deceitful in their claims they are banning trade with Israel. They are not, since they deliver oil, metals and consumer goods through Israeli shipping company, ZIM, and others, which they have welcomed into their ports. Erdogan must put…

  • Hunger Strike for Gaza at UN and in Jordan: Food as a “Heavy Burden”

    “This follows months of Israeli attacks on aid and healthcare workers in Gaza, Israel has killed 1,000 healthcare workers, as well as repeated raids on health facilities, in what the UN has described as a systematic ‘medicide.’

  • Trump is Eyeing Iran Hawk Brian Hook as First Foreign Policy Pick

    “Hook served as U.S. Special Representative for Iran and advisor to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo during the last two years of Trump’s presidency, which saw the killing of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani and expansion of crushing sanctions intended to spur regime change in Iran.”

  • Legal Scholar on How to Stop Israel from Shutting Down UNRWA

    “Israel is shutting down UNRWA as part of its longstanding campaign to extinguish the Palestinian Right of Return under International that is enshrined in UN General Assembly Resolution 194, which Israel formally accepted as a condition for its Membership in the United Nations Organization along with the UN General Assembly Partition Resolution 181. The Question…

  • Kushner: * Gaza into Real Estate * Was Russiagate Actually Israelgate?

    Netanyahu asked the Trump transition team to lobby other countries to help Israel stop the resolution from passing. Netanyahu would sleep in Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner’s bed when he visited New York.

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