41 QuickLinks

Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Carter says Gaza Palestinians treated like animals
Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are being "treated more like animals than human beings", former U.S. president Jimmy Carter said on Tuesday. On a visit to the enclave, he condemned Israel's January bombardment of Gaza and its continuing trade blockade, which he said forbids even children's toys.

Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Does Israel Really Have a Right to Exist?
(2 comments) Following Netanyahu's much anticipated policy speech, politicians and journalists, like mindless automatons, have set about repeating Israel's tired mantra that Palestinians should recognize Israel's right to exist. Never mind the fact that the PLO and Palestine Authority have obliged this ludicrous call, not once, but four times.

Saturday, June 6, 2009
How Pharma and Insurance Intend to Kill the Public Option, And What Obama and the Rest of Us Must Do
(1 comments) I'ved poked around Washington today, talking with friends on the Hill who confirm the worst: Big Pharma and Big Insurance are gaining ground in their campaign to kill the public option in the emerging health care bill. You know why, of course. They don't want a public option that would compete with private insurers and use its bargaining power to negotiate better rates with drug companies.

Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Sonia Maria Sotomayor -- She's No Clarence Thomas, But No Thurgood Marshall Either
Should we spend all our time and energy refuting the racism of Republican talking heads, and none examining her record, and how she arrived at the door of the Supreme Court? Is this a good time to explore what a just and democratic society must demand from its courts --- more nonwhite faces in high places? More rights for corporations? Or more justice for people? And if this isn't a good time, is that time ever coming?

Saturday, May 30, 2009
Hugo Chávez: The Most Popular Leader in the Middle East
The results of the new survey of 'Arab opinion' conducted by Zogby International show that Barack Obama has a much more favourable rating than did his predecessor as US president. But when asked to name the world leaders whom they most admire, the participants put the President of Venezuela at the top of the poll.

Thursday, May 28, 2009
Mr. Obama: Resign Now
(2 comments) We expected broken promises. But the gap between the soaring expectations that accompanied Barack Obama's inauguration and his wretched performance is the broadest such chasm in recent historical memory. This guy makes Bill Clinton look like a paragon of integrity and follow-through.

Sunday, May 17, 2009
Beyond the Media Hysteria on Hugo Chávez
In Hugo! The Hugo Chávez Story from Mud Hut to Perpetual Revolution, Bart Jones renders a remarkably sober portrait of the Venezuelan leader, whose "life story is the stuff of Hollywood, a Lincoln-like rise from poverty to power... with a Venezuelan twist." Jones lived in Venezuela from 1992 to 2000, working initially as a Maryknoll lay missioner and then as a foreign correspondent for The Associated Press.

Thursday, April 30, 2009
The US should cut military spending in half
Gates proposal is both too cautious and inadequate. If he has his druthers, the next military budget will look much like this one: It will still serve excessive objectives. We will still defend allies that can defend themselves, fight in other people's civil wars in a vain effort to "fix" their states, and burn tax dollars to serve the hubristic notion that US military hegemony is what keeps the world safe.

Thursday, April 23, 2009
Send Open Veins of Latin America to Obama!
Let's make sure that the Obama administration gets the message that Open Veins of Latin America is a crucial history of the type of U.S. intervention in the region that needs to stop!

Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Democrats versus the Dalai Lama?
When it came to a resolution honoring the Dalai Lama, who's usually a slam-dunk for winning hearts and minds in the free world, the Democrats flinched. My excellent colleague Eric Bailey, in his story about this, quoted the resolution's sponsor, San Luis Obispo Republican Assemblyman Sam Blakeslee, as saying that people from the Chinese consulate in San Francisco had worked the halls lobbying against the measure.

Friday, March 13, 2009
America is in urgent need of its own 'perestroika', says Gorbachev
(9 comments) America is in urgent need of its own 'perestroika' and its days as the world's superpower have ended, according to former Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev. "America needs perestroika right now. I did a lecture in the US and said the country needs its own perestroika and I got a 10 minute standing ovation," said the man whose own policies helped trigger the collapse of the Soviet Union. "

Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Sneak Peek: Scenes From the Obama Deception Movie
Obama is not following through on a great many of his campaign promises. Does he have the same handlers and elite influencers behind him that George W. Bush did?

Saturday, March 7, 2009
Ruminations on President Obama's Tenure Thus Far and "Acceptable Punditry"
I have read and re-read President Obama's Joint Congressional Address. All of the "acceptable punditry" have spoken and given the President glowing reviews. And so, to them and the population that still believes in them, "All is right with the world." But for the rest of us, who refuse to swallow the pill that puts us into the Matrix, a good dose of reality is strongly called for.

Sunday, January 25, 2009
Is the US about to treat the rest of the world better? Maybe...
The tears are finally drying – the tears of the Bush years, and the tears of awe at the sight of a black President of the United States. So what now? The cliché of the day is that Barack Obama will inevitably disappoint the hopes of a watching world, but the truth is more subtle than that.

Saturday, January 24, 2009
U.S. Policy Towards Venezuela and Colombia Will Change Little Under Obama
Recent comments by President-elect Barack Obama, Secretary of State appointee Hilary Clinton and leading congressional Democrats suggest that the incoming U.S. administration will not significantly differ from the Bush administration in its approach towards Venezuela and Colombia.

Thursday, December 18, 2008
The mother of all paradoxes, the American social model (Pravda)
It's undeniable that the American social model is a paradox in the world. All you have to do is look around at other nations and the difference is clear as the Rome sky in July. Even though today at the nadir of its profound social crisis because of its flagrant, outright failure, America continues unabashedly to hammer away at its people how fortunate they are.

Monday, December 15, 2008
The chickens come home to roost: US misdeeds fuelling violence and terror
(3 comments) Thirty-nine women and children and eight teenagers at a wedding could hardly be mistaken for militants. Yet that's what the US military said about the 47 civilians murdered in an air strike in Afghanistan. Do we imagine, for a minute, that anyone vaguely knowing these people would forgive their tormentors and murderers?

Wednesday, December 10, 2008
UN official slams Israel 'crimes'
The UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories has said Israel's policies there amount to a crime against humanity. Richard Falk's statement came as UN human rights delegates urged Israel to take nearly 100 measures including ending its blockade of the Gaza Strip.

Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Obama's Center-Right Presidency: The Die is Cast
(1 comments) Barack Obama has earned a well-deserved rating of "center-right" politician. He worked hard to pull himself rightward, after starting off with a reputation as a 'peace' candidate. Nobody calls Obama that anymore, not since he endorsed the bankers' bailout, put the economy's future in the hands of the same people that set the stage for financial meltdown, and let Bush's War Secretary keep the keys to the imperial armory.

Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Bait and Switch on the Employee Free Choice Act : Is Obama Backing Off a Crucial Pledge to Labor?
(9 comments) It's only been a month since hundreds of thousands of union members and their families helped Barack Obama win key "battleground states." Yet, already, some labor supporters of the president-elect fear he may be backing away from a key campaign promise to workers threatened by recession.

Thursday, November 27, 2008
Obama Chooses Wall Street Over Main Street
(2 comments) Maybe Ralph Nader was right in predicting that the same Wall Street hustlers would have a lock on our government no matter which major party won the election. I hate to admit it, since it wasn't that long ago that I heatedly challenged Nader in a debate on this very point. But how else is one to respond to Barack Obama's picking the very folks who helped get us into this financial mess to now lead us out of it?

Wednesday, November 5, 2008
The Art of Lying
Britain is a mere subcontractor to the United States. Almost everything that is "foreign policy" in London is approved in Washington, the centre of the most rapacious power in historical memory. When you bear this in mind, the American presidential race is surreal.

Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Over 360 Latin America Experts Call on Obama to Improve U.S.-Latin American Relations
Anticipating a democratic victory in the November 4 presidential elections, 368 academics specializing in Latin America recently sent a letter urging Senator and presidential candidate Barack Obama to become a partner, rather than an adversary, concerning changes already under way in Latin America.

Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Where's FDR when you need him?
As the current financial crisis has unfolded, Franklin D. Roosevelt has been frequently mentioned, both for his talent at rallying and reassuring the nation in crisis as well as for the economic policies he used to lead the country out of the Great Depression. In this second category, his name and record have often been traduced.

Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Massive UN vote in support of lifting US embargo on Cuba
(10 comments) The UN General Assembly on Wednesday voted overwhelmingly for the 17th year in a row in favor of lifting the 46-year-old US trade embargo on communist-ruled Cuba, as Havana hoped for better ties with a new US administration.

Monday, October 13, 2008
Interview with Noam Chomsky 'The United States Has Essentially a One-Party System'
(3 comments) The linguist and public intellectual Noam Chomsky has long been a critic of American consumerism and imperialism. Spiegel spoke to him about the current crisis of capitalism, Barack Obama's rhetoric and the compliance of the intellectual class.

Tuesday, October 7, 2008
British commander says war in Afghanistan cannot be won
Britain's commander in Afghanistan has said the war against the Taliban cannot be won, the Sunday Times reported. It quoted Brigadier Mark Carleton-Smith as saying in an interview that if the Taliban were willing to talk, then that might be "precisely the sort of progress" needed to end the insurgency.

Thursday, October 2, 2008
Does the Bailout Bill Mark the End of America as We Know It?
What seems to be happening is that the Bush administration is engineering a massive raid on the Federal treasury to pay off the people within the financial industry who have been operating the housing scam because the politicians told them to do it. This is hush money.

Tuesday, September 30, 2008
No Bailout for Wall Street Billionaires
Treasury Secretary Paulson and President Bush backed by the Democratic Congressional leadership have asked Congress for $700 billion dollars to bailout Wall Street financial institutions. Over the past several years these banks reaped billions of dollars borrowing and speculating on mortgages, securities and other financial paper with virtually no capital covering their bets.

Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Obama Shares Bush's Goals in Foreign Policy
(3 comments) Barack Obama, the Democratic presidential candidate, has adopted the rhetoric of change which has captured the imagination of many Americans and non-Americans around the world. But when it comes to the foreign policy, there are enough reasons to remain sceptical.

Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Bush Had No Plan to Catch Bin Laden after 9/11
(2 comments) New evidence from former U.S. officials reveals that the George W. Bush administration failed to adopt any plan to block the retreat of Osama bin Laden and other al Qaeda leaders from Afghanistan to Pakistan in the first weeks after 9/11. That failure was directly related to the fact that top administration officials gave priority to planning for war with Iraq over military action against al Qaeda in Afghanistan.

Sunday, September 28, 2008
Israel asked US for green light to bomb nuclear sites in Iran
Israel gave serious thought this spring to launching a military strike on Iran's nuclear sites but was told by President George W Bush that he would not support it and did not expect to revise that view for the rest of his presidency, senior European diplomatic sources have told the Guardian.

Sunday, September 28, 2008
Human Rights Watch in Venezuela: Lies, Crimes and Cover-ups
Human Rights Watch, a US-based group claiming to be a non-governmental organization, but which is in fact funded by government-linked quasi-private foundations and a Congressional funded political propaganda organization, the National Endowment for Democracy, has issued a report "A Decade Under Chavez: Political Intolerance and Lost Opportunities for Advancing Human Rights in Venezuela" (9/21/2008 hrw.org).

Sunday, September 28, 2008
Pre-election Militarization of the North American Homeland. US Combat Troops in Iraq repatriated to "help with civil unr
The Army Times reports that the 3rd Infantry's 1st Brigade Combat Team is returning from Iraq to defend the Homeland, as "an on-call federal response force for natural or manmade emergencies and disasters, including terrorist attacks." The BCT unit has been attached to US Army North, the Army's component of US Northern Command (USNORTHCOM).

Sunday, September 28, 2008
Progressive Caucus Letter to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi regarding the pending financial bailout
Letter from the Progressive Caucus to Nancy Pelosi on the bailout.

Sunday, September 28, 2008
Has Sarah Palin Been Picked as the Titular Head of the Coming Police State?
Palin will help to establish a true and irreversible 'fear society' in this once free once proud nation. Please understand what you are looking at when you look at Sarah "Evita" Palin. You are looking at the designated muse of the coming American police state.

Thursday, September 25, 2008
It's Judgment Day for McCain
Last week, Republican presidential candidate John McCain called for a commission to "find out what went wrong" on Wall Street. It was an excellent suggestion: Public inquiries into Wall Street practices served the country well in the 1930s. And Mr. McCain has a special advantage to bring to any such investigation -- many of the relevant witnesses are friends or colleagues of his.

Thursday, September 25, 2008
The Destabilization of Bolivia and the "Kosovo Option"
The secession of Bolivia's Eastern provinces is part of a US sponsored covert operation, coordinated out of the US State Department, in liaison with US intelligence.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Bolivia: Indigenous Government Defies US-Backed Fascists
Relative calm has returned to Bolivia following a three-week offensive of violence and terrorism launched by the US-backed right-wing opposition denounced by Bolivian President Evo Morales as a "civil coup".

Tuesday, September 23, 2008
London Protesters Demand an End to US Coups
SCORES of solidarity campaigners picketed the US embassy in London on Wednesday night before a huge rally at the National Union of Journalists head office to demand an end to US interference in Latin America.

Saturday, September 20, 2008
Reactionary Rampage: The Paramilitary Massacre in Bolivia
(1 comments) Bolivian President Evo Morales' expulsion of US Ambassador Phillip Goldberg on September 10 for alleged coup plotting sparked the latest diplomatic crisis in the Americas. But the diplomatic fallout has overshadowed the internal dynamics that led to the massacre of some 30 campesinos with perhaps as many as 40 more disappeared in El Porvenir, Pando, near Bolivia's northeastern border with Brazil.