News Releases

  • Perspectives on Sen. Lieberman’s Policies

    RABBI MICHAEL LERNER Editor of Tikkun magazine, a bimonthly Jewish critique of politics, culture and society, and author of Spirit Matters: Global Healing and the Wisdom of the Soul, Lerner said today: “It’s great that a Jew is on a major party ticket but unfortunately, just as many African Americans noted Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas did not represent the interests of their community, so many Jews have mixed feelings about the selection of Lieberman. Sen. Joseph Lieberman joined with Bill Clinton and Al Gore to create the Democratic Leadership Council precisely to transform the Democratic Party from its traditional…


  • Below the Surface in Philadelphia

    RON McGUIRE “What we’re seeing in Philadelphia is a First Amendment crisis that could become a First Amendment catastrophe,” said McGuire, an attorney working with the R2K legal collective. “The authorities in Philadelphia have set bail for demonstrators facing misdemeanor charges as high as $30,000. It’s unprecedented. We have $1 million bail set for demonstrators facing felonies. The police commissioner has called on the federal government to use the anti-racketeering and conspiracy laws to prosecute demonstrators.” More Information LOUIS DUBOSE Editor of the Texas Observer and co-author (with Molly Ivins) of Shrub: The Short But Happy Political Life of George…


  • “Compassionate Conservatism”?

    WILLIAM HARTUNG Senior research fellow at the World Policy Institute and author of the recent report “Lockheed Martin and the GOP: Profiteering and Pork Barrel Politics with a Purpose,” Hartung said today: “Bush-Cheney is the arms industry’s dream team. Bush tried to give Lockheed Martin a contract to run the Texas welfare system. Lockheed Martin VP Bruce Jackson, a finance chair of the Bush for President campaign, was heard to brag at a conference last year that he would be in a position to ‘write the Republican platform’ on defense. Under Cheney, Halliburton went from 42nd to 18th on the…


  • Republican Convention: Issues of Economic Justice

    RICKIE SOLINGER Author of the forthcoming Beggars and Choosers: How the Politics of Choice Shapes Abortion, Adoption and Welfare in the U.S., Soliger said today: “If the Republicans believe ‘no child should be left behind,’ they really ought to consider that children who might be left behind in this country are the children of poor mothers — the women who welfare ‘reform’ put in danger. Most Americans think today that motherhood should be a class privilege, a status available only to women who have enough money.” GALEN PYLER Co-chair of the organizing committee of the Kensington Welfare Rights Union, which…


  • The Conventions: Brought to You by Corporate America

    The Republican Party convention has a price tag of more than $50 million. The Democratic Party plans to spend about $35 million on its convention. Federal funds will cover $13.3 million for each of those two conventions. Large corporations will cover the rest, many with major issues pending before the government. Among the GOP’s top donors: Motorola, Verizon Communications (formerly Bell Atlantic) and Comcast Corp ($1 million each), Philip Morris ($250,000), Enron ($250,000) and Blue Cross/Blue Shield ($100,000). Among the Democrats’ top donors: SBC Communications ($1 million), United Parcel Service ($1 million) and Boeing ($100,000). Some companies have contributed to…


  • Big Oil Greasing Politics?

    WENONAH HAUTER Director of Public Citizen’s Critical Mass Energy Project, Hauter said today: “High prices at the gas pump have translated into windfalls for oil companies, which saw first-quarter profits in 2000 rise nearly 500 percent over the same period in 1999. Oil companies are ripping off the public and picking consumers’ pocketbooks clean… After the Gulf War, Dick Cheney turned around and joined the major energy service provider Halliburton Co., the company that got the contract to clean up the mess in Kuwait after the war. No doubt the oil industry, which has already given George W. Bush $1.5…


  • Internet: Major Issues

    Privatization, Open Access, Privacy, Copyright RONDA HAUBEN Co-author of Netizens: On the History and Impact of Usenet and the Internet, Hauben said today: “While the Internet’s infrastructure grew up under public administration and funding, the U.S. government has set out to give away vital Internet functions to a private corporation called the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. Congress requested that the General Accounting Office do an investigation of the creation and development of ICANN and its contracts with the Commerce Department. The GAO report (which was ‘corrected’ by the Commerce Department before being issued on July 7) acknowledges…


  • Camp David: Deadline?

    FRANCIS BOYLE Boyle, a professor at the University of Illinois College of Law in Champaign, served as legal advisor to the Palestinian delegation to the Middle East peace negotiations from 1991 to 1993. He said today: “The Palestinians have a very strong case they should take to the UN and the World Court. Everything that they are asking for — and then some — is contained in UN Resolution 181 and Resolution 194, both of which Israel accepted as a condition for its joining the UN. If Israel continues to refuse to let the refugees go home, or to share…


  • Police Brutality; Welfare “Reform”

    JILL NELSON Editor of the recently released book Police Brutality: An Anthology, Nelson said today: “On the day President Clinton addressed the NAACP, the mayor of Philadelphia was not present because a dozen or more of his officers were caught on video beating and kicking a suspect. Clearly there is a problem when it comes to policing citizens of color and respecting our constitutional rights… In the last decade we have seen millions of dollars go into beefing up police forces nationally and at this moment we have this much-lauded drop in street crime. It is time we look at…


  • Mideast Talks at Camp David

    LAMIS ANDONI An independent analyst and journalist who has covered the Mideast for nearly two decades, Andoni said today: “U.S. officials are apparently presenting a package to the Israelis and Palestinians, hoping that will become the basis for negotiations instead of international law. U.S. officials have been making references to achieving an agreement that will address the Israeli desire to end all Palestinian claims. Arafat is certainly the weak party, but he cannot accept something that prevents Palestinians from acquiring their rights in the future, especially since Palestinians are very disillusioned with the Oslo Accords.” More Information SUSAN AKRAM Associate…


  • Threats to First Amendment Rights

    For Documented, Anna Oakes writes that rulings in high-profile cases targeting noncitizen university students who have engaged in pro-Palestine speech, like those of Mohsen Mahdawi and Rümeysa Öztürk, could redefine First Amendment protections.  ANNA OAKES; [email protected]      Oakes is an independent journalist based in New York City. Oakes told the Institute for Public Accuracy: “For the…

  • Should Black People Be Allowed to Vote?

    “Asked by Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut whether he would support bringing back ‘laws in this country to only allow white people to vote,’ Bozell refused to give a direct answer.“

  • Trump Seeks U.N. Blessing for Gaza Scheme

    “U.N. Security Council delegations, led by the U.S. as the co-perpetrator of the genocide in Palestine, with the support of complicit countries like the U.K. and France, and with the cooperation of U.S. client states in the region, are conspiring to merge elements of the French-Saudi colonial plan, with the U.S. colonial plan, in order…

  • Jews, Zionism and Mamdani

    “This is not a new debate. Anti-Zionism has existed since the birth of Zionism itself. The American Council for Judaism has proudly stood in this tradition since 1942, representing what was once the mainstream stance of the Reform movement: that Jewish identity, ethics, and community do not depend on nationalism, and that Jewish life flourishes…

  • Did Baerbock Coverup Germany’s Role in the Gaza Genocide at the ICJ?

    “Journalists should ask Annalena Baerbock if German diplomats — under her leadership as foreign minister — lied to the ICJ about Germany’s active military support at Israel’s request. A @DropSiteNews report suggests as as much.” 

  • Deception About Medicare for All

    A new report from corporate-oriented Democrats called “Deciding to Win” declares that Medicare for All is an “unpopular economic policy”––but advocates say the claim is false.

  • Trump’s Big Caribbean War Lie

    “The evidence that the U.S. Navy’s buildup in the Caribbean is not about combating drugs but rather regime change in Venezuela is overwhelming. Perhaps the most obvious is that the U.S. is obliterating small boats and their crews, rather than capturing the men and forcing a confession from them. No names are released.“

  • Trump and Nuclear Threats

    “The U.S. government has withdrawn from various nuclear weapons treaties, including the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty during the George W. Bush administration and the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty in Trump’s first administration. It has been in violation of its disarmament obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The Biden administration made U.S. nuclear policy more aggressive in…

  • U.S. “Ceasefire” a “Ploy to Sabotage the Rule of Law” — Again

    Mokhiber added: “We are indeed seeing another ploy by the U.S. government working in collusion with the secretariat of the U.N. to sabotage the rule of law as well as the work of many in the U.N. system who are trying desperately to uphold the U.N. Charter.”

  • The Long History of Long Covid

    Writing for Truthout, Jesse Hagopian, a longtime educator with long Covid, details how Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has harmed Americans with long Covid by shutting down the Office of Long Covid Research and Practice, gutting funding, and derailing trials and studies. Hagopian did extensive research to “situate this moment of disability caused by Covid, contextualized…

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