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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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  • Ukraine: Stopping the Escalatory Ladder

    Carden is a former adviser to the U.S.-Russia Bilateral Presidential Commission at the U.S. Department of State. He has written for The Nation, The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, The Spectator, UnHerd and other outlets.

  • Pandemic’s Effects on Employment and Disability Among Older Americans

    A new working paper from the National Bureau for Economic Research found that labor force non-participation remains high in older Americans. Disability benefits, meanwhile, are depressed relative to pre-pandemic levels.

  • Should All Adults Under 65 Get Screened for Anxiety?

    the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommended that primary care doctors should regularly screen all adults under 65 for anxiety, even those without symptoms. Neuroscientist and anxiety specialist Judson Brewer says that “screening by itself is not so helpful. If you screen for something you don’t have a treatment for––who cares?”

  • How Nuclear Wars Can Start: Nuclear War Exercise, Then and Now

    For the first time since World War II, troops were also deployed to The Netherlands. The unprecedented nature of the troop movements certainly attracted Soviet attention.

  • New National Data on Long Covid

    In a report on new Census data from the Household Pulse Survey from September, the Center for Economic and Policy Research write that about 4.4 million adults report symptoms from long Covid that reduce their ability to carry out day-to-day activities by a lot.

  • Activists Demand a Halt to NATO Nuclear War Rehearsals; Congressional Action

    RootsAction.org has launched a campaign “Tell Congress and President Biden to make NATO cease its nuclear war rehearsals.”

  • Biden Pleads on Stock BuyBacks, but Why the Inaction?

    “in 2005-2015 Exxon Mobil distributed $224 billion in buybacks on top of $101 billion in dividends (a combined 86 percent of net income). As Vice President, Biden was an outspoken critic of stock buybacks, and he should know that an executive order that bans buybacks is the only way in which the oil companies will cease using the profits…

  • Call for Banning Killer Drones, from Ukraine to Ethiopia

    “”Killer drones are a particularly inhumane type of warfare with high error rates causing the deaths of civilians. Moreover, killer drones seek to desensitize us from war, make war seem ‘easier’ and thereby increase the chances of yet more wars.”

  • Critics of Intervention in Haiti

    Experts say “the last thing the Haitian people want is another ‘humanitarian’ invasion and occupation by the U.S. and the ‘Core Group.'”

  • Ukrainian Missile Crisis

    “During the Cuban crisis, Kennedy was under intense pressure to act militarily, by striking the Soviet missile sites or invading Cuba, from the Joint Chiefs of Staff; members of the Executive Committee (ExComm) of the National Security Council”

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