(By Juan Cole) The dramatic overthrow of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych on Saturday, as he fled the presidential palace and it was occupied by extreme nationalists, recalls events in the Middle East in 2011. The crisis in the Ukraine was provoked last fall when Yanukovych reconsidered earlier moves toward integration with Europe. He is from […]
Archives for February 2014
The Deep State is Vulnerable to People Power
(By Juan Cole) My remarks below were published at Bill Moyers’ site this weekend. They came in response to Mike Lofgren’s important essay, “Anatomy of the Deep State” . Lofgren is a former congressional staffer. Mike Lofgren’s long experience on the Hill has given him a small window, he might say only an aperture, into […]
Wind Turbines don’t decline in Efficiency for 25 Years, contrary to Myth
(By James Ayre) Wind Farms Blow Away Old Criticism — Research Shows That Wind Turbines Remain Productive For Up To 25 Years (via Clean Technica) While wind energy has become an increasingly common development choice in recent years, there has been some criticism of the technology — of particular interest in that regard was a […]
Why won’t Western Politicians Condemn Israeli Crackdown on Palestinian Protesters, but do Complain about Ukraine?
(Via AFP) Hundreds demand reopening of key Hebron street (via AFP) Palestinians held a protest Friday in the West Bank city of Hebron to demand its main street be reopened, 20 years after the Israeli military closed it on security grounds. An AFP correspondent said about 1,000 Palestinians joined by Israeli and international… RT […]
Judge: All right for NYPD to spy on Muslim-Americans; not all right for Journalists to reveal it
(By Sarah Lazare) A federal judge ruled Thursday that the NYPD's secret spying on Muslims in schools, restaurants, and mosques with no evidence of wrongdoing is perfectly legal, and it was the media's exposure of this surveillance that was the real cause of harm. The decision prompted outcry from civil rights and racial justice advocates. […]
The GOP, Race and Ted Nugent: If you won’t Denounce Nazi Insults, What does that Say about You?
(By Juan Cole) Musician Ted Nugent called President Barack Obama a ‘subhuman mongrel.’ He has not been denounced for this language by Greg Abbott, the Republican who wants to be the next governor of Texas, though Abbott brought Nugent along on two campaign appearances. On Friday, Nugent “apologized” (though “not to president Obama”) for using […]
Falk: Edward Said was the Palestinians’ Nelson Mandela
(By Andrew Sondern) Princeton professor emeritus talks Palestinian nationalism in speech at university (via NJ.com) By Andrew Sondern Richard Falk, a professor emeritus of international law at Princeton University and the United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, is no stranger to controversy. On the same… ———– […]
Iraq: Firebrand Muqtada al-Sadr Lambastes PM as Dictator, Looter & Resigns from Politics (Again)
(By Mustafa Habib, Baghdad) He ended his ten year-long political campaign in a televised speech lasting around 11 minutes. In that speech Iraqi cleric Muqtada al-Sadr said a number of disturbing things: that current Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is a dictator, that Iraq’s Parliament is paralyzed and that the country’s judiciary is too politicized. […]
The Dark State: Snowden’s Revelations on Secret Gov’t Surveillance are the Tip of the Iceberg
(By Tom Engelhardt) Intelligence officials have weighed in with an estimate of just how many secret files National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden took with him when he headed for Hong Kong last June. Brace yourself: 1.7 million. At least they claim that as the number he or his web crawler accessed before he left town. Let’s assume […]
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