Bacon: The Killing Dust11 Oct 2007Cananea, Sonora, Mexico – In its natural state, Cananea’s copper ore is part of a sagebrush-covered mountain in the middle of the Sonora Desert 70 miles south of Arizona. To extract the metal indispensable to computers, automobiles and iPods, the rock is first blown out of the mountainside with explosives and then loaded onto dump trucks so huge the tires would dwarf a basketball player.
Jacobs: Marc Estrin Takes on the Rapture in The Lamentations of Julius Marantz11 Oct 2007I don’t know how familiar folks are with them in other parts of the United States, but down here in North Carolina, I’ve seen the bumperstickers that read “In case of rapture this car will be unmanned” all too often. The funny thing about the sticker though, is that the drivers of the vehicles they appear on seem to be deadly serious.
Golub: After the End of Empire11 Oct 2007The Bush administration is a case study in how a small elite representing minority interests can seize power and then use fear and nationalism in a political mobilisation to achieve authoritarian goals. When he came to power in 2000 Bush had no democratic legitimacy.
Eagleton: Rebuking obnoxious views is not just a personality kink10 Oct 2007In an essay entitled The Age of Horrorism published in September 2006, the novelist Martin Amis advocated a deliberate programme of harassing the Muslim community in Britain. “The Muslim community,” he wrote, “will have to suffer until it gets its house in order.
Turse: Slum Fights10 Oct 2007Duane Schattle doesn’t mince words. “The cities are the problem,” he says.
Steinberg: The melting pot is NOT broken10 Oct 2007All through American history, one of the most common epithets hurled against immigrants is that they were “unassimilable”—too clannish to become “true Americans.” The irony, of course, is that this charge is leveled by people whose forebears were themselves regarded as unassimilable.
Lendman: Reviewing James Petras’ “Rulers and Ruled in the US Empire”10 Oct 2007James Petras is Binghamton University, New York Professor Emeritus of Sociology whose credentials and achievements are long and impressive. He’s a noted academic figure on the left, a well-respected Latin American expert, and a longtime chronicler of the region’s popular struggles as well as being an ad.
Grey: Shadows Whose Fate Can Only Be Guessed At10 Oct 2007The frenzied US-led hunt for al-Qaida has led to people being put through `rendition’ – the secret and usually illegal transfer of suspects across national borders to face often extreme questioning without legal process. Despite the furore over the rendition system, it is still in operation Reza Afsherzadegan looked up at US.
Lambert: Can the People Bypass the Elections?10 Oct 2007Technically, Guatemala is at internal peace and is holding free and fair elections – as free and fair as family sponsorship and a certain consensus among the ruling elite will permit. There are other ways, not yet including violence, to move on to the future span style=”font-size: 10pt; font-.
Cohn: Unrepentent, Bush Denies Torture10 Oct 2007The April 2004 publication of grotesque photographs of naked Iraqis piled on top of each other, forced to masturbate, and led around on leashes like dogs, sent shock waves around the world. George W.
Safty: In their own Words: Dehumanizing the Iraqi people10 Oct 2007Some of the most credible testimonies against the Iraq war come from those very American soldiers expected to inflict the horrors of the war on the Iraqi people. Recently, the Iraq Veterans Against the War listed ten reasons why they oppose the war.
Edwards: Iraq Body Count: “A Very Misleading Exercise”10 Oct 2007 Introduction The mainstream media are continuing to use figures provided by the website Iraq Body Count (IBC) to sell the public a number for total post-invasion deaths of Iraqis that is perhaps 5-10% of the true death toll. p class=”MsoNormal” style=”margin: 0in 0in 0pt.
Castle: Free speech threat over critical book on Israel10 Oct 2007A controversy in the United States over a new book from a British publisher has raised questions over free speech on contentious political subjects. Progressive publisher Pluto Press has been attacked by a pro-Israel lobby group, Stand With Us (SWU), by whom it has been described as publishing “anti-American and anti-Israeli propaganda”.
Peirce: The struggle for safe abortion in Latin America10 Oct 2007There is a slogan commonly heard among Latin American feminists: “The rich women abort and the poor women die.” Among those who fall through the cracks of the extreme wealth inequalities of Latin America, the women who die or suffer health problems due to unsafe abortions are invisible victims.
Cruz: Losing in Afghanistan – three sorrowful tigers9 Oct 2007The Bush administration has asked for US$198bn to keep the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan going through 2008. Not for reconstruction , nor to promote democratic institutions, nor, as they have been saying in their Orwell-speak until now, to strengthen security, but for war.
Ali: Favored Nation9 Oct 2007“The most powerful weapon in the struggle against extremism is not bullets or bombs – it is the universal appeal of freedom. Freedom is the design of our maker, and the longing of every soul.
Lamrani: The Economic Sanctions Against Cuba8 Oct 2007For 15 consecutive years, the general assembly of the United Nations has voted in favor of lifting the economic sanctions that seriously harm the Cuban people, especially the most vulnerable sectors. The international community is unanimous on this issue, with the majority continually increasing.
Mishra: A Peep into Richistan8 Oct 2007People are acquainted with Hindustan, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and so on. In the early years of the 1980s, ‘Khalistan’ was hotly discussed in India.
Barker: Corporate Media Greens8 Oct 2007It is taken for granted by all political actors that the mass media is an essential resource for communicating (or in most cases, propagandising too) the wider public. Progressive voices, like those of Green politicians however seem to have accepted that they must endure the seemingly never-ending assaults that the corporate media wages on their demands for more participatory forms of democracy.
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