MARK WEISBROT, via Dan Beeton, beeton at cepr.net, Co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, Weisbrot said today: “While it’s clear that the G8 is able to unite quickly to keep a European as head of the IMF, they have been slow to come up with any feasible solution to the crisis in…

Rae Abileah, a Jewish-American activist of Israeli descent with the peace group CodePink, disrupted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s congressional address yesterday, Democracy Now! reports. … According to Democracy Now!, as Abileah rose up, members of the audience tackled her to the ground and people in the hall cheered, drowning her out. She was escorted…

Fox News is reporting: “President Obama warned Libyan leader Muammar al-Qaddafi that the NATO military campaign against his regime ‘will not relent,’ as both he and British Prime Minister David Cameron reaffirmed their commitment to the mission and called on Qaddafi to leave power.” Politico reports: “Obama administration belatedly threatens veto of detainee, war legislation.”

The Hill reported Tuesday that Sen. Rand Paul’s, R-Ky., actions in the Senate “might cause the Patriot Act to lapse at the end of the week.” BRUCE FEIN, bruce at thelichfieldgroup.com Fein was deputy attorney general under President Ronald Reagan and is author of “Constitutional Peril: The Life and Death Struggle for Our Constitution and Democracy”…

The New York Times reports today on the Supreme Court’s ruling on California’s prison system: “Conditions in California’s overcrowded prisons are so bad that they violate the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment, the Supreme Court ruled on Monday, ordering the state to reduce its prison population by more than 30,000 inmates.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will address a joint meeting of Congress tomorrow. NOURA ERAKAT, nourae at mac.com Erakat works as an adjunct professor of international human rights law in the Middle East at Georgetown University and is the U.S.-based legal advocacy coordinator for the Badil Center for Palestinian Refugee and Residency Rights. She is…

AIMEE ALLISON, aimee at rootsaction.org Co-Executive Director of RootsAction, Allison said today: “Obama will need the support of progressives in his reelection bid, but the biggest issues — from closing Guantanamo to ending war in Iraq to protecting the social safety net haven’t been addressed.” The group released a video today titled “Louder Than Words”…

JOSEPH MASSAD, jam25 at columbia.edu Massad is associate professor of modern Arab politics and intellectual history at Columbia University. He said today that Obama’s “silence on demonstrations in monarchies (Saudi Arabia, Oman, Jordan, Morocco) and the mild criticisms of Yemen stood in stark contrast with the vehemence of his criticisms of Syria and Libya. The…

The Huffington Post reports of Obama’s speech tomorrow: “Obama will outline ‘a single standard’ to apply to Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood and other parties that seek to engage with the United States, the official said. “‘He will say we are happy to engage with any group that renounces violence as a tool for political change,’…

A New York Times piece titled “In Japan Reactor Failings, Danger Signs for the U.S.” reports: “Emergency vents that American officials have said would prevent devastating hydrogen explosions at nuclear plants in the United States were put to the test in Japan — and failed to work, according to experts and officials with the company…