So on Saturday, Syrian rebels in the east of the country attacked another government checkpoint along the Iraqi border, al-Ya`rabiya, and took it. Some of the besieged Syrian troops, many wounded, escaped to the Iraqi side and were being escorted by Iraqi troops south when they were ambushed early on Tuesday and 48 were killed, […]
Israel Lobby asks Congress to Approve Attack on Iran & to Exempt Israel from Sequester
News from what Ross Perot used to call the guys in sharkskin suits and alligator shoes– the lobbyists who routinely outvote you and me on Capitol Hill: The American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which ought to be a registered foreign agent, opens its annual conference in Washington today. Its three big goals right now are […]
Egypt on the Brink: The Danger of a Left-Liberal Boycott of Elections
My column is out at Truthdig, entitled “Egypt on the Brink”. Excerpt: “the opposition says it is withdrawing from parliamentary elections scheduled for April… The Brotherhood government under Morsi has not placated Egypt’s powerful working class, which has seen its wages decline. The demonstrations that have roiled Port Said, a Suez Canal city of 600,000, […]
Why there will be Masses in the Streets Protesting Climate Change (Engelhardt)
Tom Engelhardt writes at Tomdispatch.com: Two Sundays ago, I traveled to the nation’s capital to attend what was billed as “the largest climate rally in history” and I haven’t been able to get the experience — or a question that haunted me — out of my mind. Where was everybody? First, though, the obvious weather […]
Austerity and the threat to Democracy, in the US, Europe and the Middle East
The “sequester” is actually, of course, the American form of austerity, or cut-backs in government spending during a recession. Austerity, or stingy government in Europe has kept employment extremely depressed compared to what it would have been with government stimulus, as Paul Krugman argues. Saturday, there were massive protests throughout Portugal against Scrooge policies by […]
Muslim Opposition to the Muslim Religious Right Grows, from Egypt to Bangladesh
The headlines this week were full of stories from the Muslim world about Muslims attacking the Muslim religious Right, whether the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt or the Jama’at-i Islami in Bangladesh. The rise of the religious Right in politics is producing a backlash throughout the region. Part of the backlash comes from secularists of Muslim […]
How the US Decides Drone-kill People when it Doesn’t Know Who they Are (Currier)
Cora Currier writes at ProPublica Earlier this week, we wrote about a significant but often overlooked aspect of the drone wars in Pakistan and Yemen: so-called signature strikes, in which the U.S. kills people whose identities aren’t confirmed. While President Obama and administration officials have framed the drone program as targeting particular members of Al […]
Taking on Creeping Creationism in Public Schools (Moyers Video)
Bill Moyers interviews Zack Kopplin on keeping the teaching of Creationism in public-funded public schools. US students are not making the gains in science and math learning that students in other countries are, which isn’t surprising since their teachers are being mandated by fanatic ignoramuses in state legislatures to tell them that Jesus rode a […]
After Benedict: Religions have to Democratize if they are to Survive
The US television news coverage of Benedict XVI’s last day in office was extremely annoying because it mostly wasn’t good journalism. CNN kept talking about “pageantry.” We “witnessed history,” we were told. I don’t know what that means. We witness history every day. History is the record of the past. Almost no sharp questions were […]
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