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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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  • Swine Flu and Meat Industry

    MIKE DAVIS Available for a limited number of interviews, Davis is author of The Monster at Our Door: The Global Threat of Avian Flu. He just wrote the piece The Really Dangerous Swine Wear Suits. Davis’ other books include City of Quartz, Ecology of Fear, In Praise of Barbarians and Planet of Slums. His most…

  • Indigenous Peoples and Climate Change

    AFP reported this week: “Indigenous peoples, who have been hard hit by the ravages of global warming, were gathering in Alaska Monday for talks on the impact of climate change on native communities. ‘Indigenous peoples are on the front lines of this global problem, at a time when their cultures and livelihoods in traditional lands…

  • IMF and World Bank Meetings in Washington

    Finance ministers and central bankers from around the world are in Washington this week for semiannual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. DR. PETER BUJARI, via Blair Hinderliter Bujari is a medical doctor and the founder and current executive director of the Human Development Trust based in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. In…

  • Torture and Accountability

    McClatchy reports today: “The Bush administration applied relentless pressure on interrogators to use harsh methods on detainees in part to find evidence of cooperation between al Qaida and the late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s regime, according to a former senior U.S. intelligence official and a former Army psychiatrist. Such information would’ve provided a foundation for…

  • Obama Administration and Cuba

    In the aftermath of the Summit of the Americas, which ended Sunday in Port of Spain, Trinidad, the relationship between Washington and Cuba has become one of the major bones of contention between the U.S. government and almost all Latin American and Caribbean leaders. REESE ERLICH Erlich, foreign correspondent and author of Dateline Havana: The…

  • Obama in Latin America

    President Obama is scheduled to be in Trinidad and Tobago today for the Summit of the Americas. MARIA LUISA MENDONÇA Mendonça, based in São Paulo, Brazil, is director of the Social Network for Justice and Human Rights. She said today: “The expectation of grassroots movements in Latin America is to change the focus of the…

  • Taxes Going to Military Spending

    CAROL KIGER ALLEN Rev. ROBERT MOORE Allen is a retired economist and is on the board of the Coalition for Peace Action & Peace Action Education Fund in New Jersey. Moore is executive director for the group. Allen said today: “Tomorrow, we’ll be administering our ‘Penny Poll.’ People approaching the post office, many to mail…

  • The Great Tax Burden Shift: From the Rich to the Rest?

    The Institute for Policy Studies has just released a report titled “Reversing the Great Tax Shift: Seven Steps to Finance Our Economic Recovery Fairly.” Among the authors of the report available for interviews are: CHUCK COLLINS Collins, senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies, said today: “Now is the time to reverse three decades…

  • Obama’s Afghanistan Plan Could Be His “Fatal Mistake”

    RITA LASAR Lasar is a member of September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows. Her brother Abraham Zelmanowitz died in the World Trade Center attack while trying to save a coworker, Ed Bayea, a paraplegic in a wheelchair, who could not leave. She just wrote the piece “Dear President Obama: Get Us Out of Afghanistan.” More…

  • * Obama in Iraq * Military Spending * Drone Attack Protests

    ADAM KOKESH An Iraq war veteran and a member of the board of Iraq Veterans Against the War, Kokesh said today: “Obama’s plan is to continue the indefinite presence of 50,000 U.S. troops in Iraq and have an increased reliance on private contractors.” More Information More Information FRIDA BERRIGAN The military budget is being released…

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