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Last Updated: Nov 6th, 2009 - 00:55:46 |
Commentary
Some are more equal than others
By Nick Egnatz
The Great Recession is over, but (and it is a
very big but) it will be a jobless recovery. The official unemployment rate is
due to hit 10 percent, while a 16 or 17 percent figure would show more
accurately those who are not registering with local authorities because
benefits have run out. Certainly a figure well beyond 30 percent would
represent the underemployed and part-timers who want full time work at a livable
wage.
Nov 6, 2009, 00:20
Commentary
The porous walls between Mayor Bloomberg, Bloomberg L.P. and private deals
By Jerry Mazza
It’s ironic that I should be noting this tale on
November 3, Election Day 2009, in New York City, as the richest man in town,
“Independent” Michael Bloomberg is running on his private budget, due to
surpass $100 million, against Democrat Bill Thompson with his $6 million
budget.
Nov 6, 2009, 00:18
Commentary
No emergency summits for Arab human development crisis
By Ramzy Baroud
When the first Arab Human Development Report
(AHDR) was published in 2002, a star glistened in a vast, gloomy sky. The fact
that a UN-sponsored report, authored by independent Arab scholars would receive
so much attention in Arab media, was in itself a promising start. The fact that
such terminology as human security, personal security, economic security, etc
-- as highlighted in the report -- would even compete with the largely
ceremonial news bulletins’ headlines in many Arab countries was in itself an
achievement. But then, the star quickly faded, the terms became clichés, and
the report, published seven times since then, became a haunting reminder of how
bad things really are in the Arab World.
Nov 6, 2009, 00:12
Commentary
Mousa gives Egyptians a cryptic clue
By Linda S. Heard
It’s been an exciting week in Egyptian politics.
The charismatic Arab League Secretary-General Amr Mousa has hinted for the
first time that he may throw his hat into the 2011 presidential ring. His
recent refusal to rule himself out as a candidate has elicited a real buzz in
the local press.
Nov 5, 2009, 00:24
Commentary
Afghanistan: It’s not the how but the why of war
By Ben Tanosborn
For all the criticism progressives bestow on
Ronald Reagan for just about any decision he made while living at the White
House -- and justifiably so, based on his interpretation of what social justice
should be -- the former president doesn’t seem to get appropriate laudatory
mention for his handling of the aftermath in the 1983 bombing of the Marine
barracks at the Beirut (Lebanon) airport where 241 American servicemen lost
their lives in a single day.
Nov 5, 2009, 00:20
Commentary
Does US-Israeli missile defense war game signal Israeli attack on Iran?
By Paul Craig Roberts
There’s no word in the Western press, but
Aljazeera reports
that the US and Israel are conducting tests of the high altitude missile
defense system that the US has provided to Israel.
Nov 5, 2009, 00:18
Commentary
NY skyscraper prices plunge with economy
By Jerry Mazza
The buildings of midtown Manhattan in which I
spent a good portion of my working life have always had a dual affect on me.
One was the panoramic sweep of the skyline that seemed to have its own noisy
beauty, an endless castle of Capitalism; the other, passing into the 21st
Century, it seemed a dark force climbing with a voracious intensity to eat the
sky (and me), in an increasingly Mad Man eat Mad Man and everybody else world.
Nov 4, 2009, 00:17
Commentary
Rack ’em and screw ’em, boys!
By Sheila Samples
Is there anything scarier than the New York
Times’ Halloween
treat entitled, “Documents Detail Conditions Found at Secret C.I.A. Jails”?
Nov 4, 2009, 00:15
Commentary
Weapons of mass distraction, again!
By Frank Scott
Seven million jobs vanish from the economy in
two years, most never to return without a multi-trillion dollar public works
program. American leadership stresses market profiteering as a solution to
climate change, while more scientists see that as the source of a problem so
critical it needs immediate action. The slaughter in Iraq and Afghanistan has
lasted longer than the 20th century world wars and now spreads to Pakistan,
destroying more lives and draining more trillions from a nearly bankrupt USA.
Tensions grow among stressed out citizens, including some of what passes for
their political leadership. So what should most concern us?
Nov 4, 2009, 00:09
Commentary
Legislating inequality: Last year in California, this year in Maine?
By Mary Shaw
A lot of Americans pay very little attention to
the off-year elections, like the ones that will take place today. After all, we’re
not electing a president, or members of Congress. This year’s election is
mostly about judges, school board members, and a handful of state governors.
Nov 3, 2009, 00:22
Commentary
Nearly fully operational: The final countdown to Lisbon success
By Paul O’Sullivan
The wrangling a treaty to streamline European
Union processes and increase its robustness is ironic, don’t you think? While
browsing the website of an English-speaking newspaper based in a capital city I
came across an open letter to the president of the Czech Republic, stating
‘you, President Klaus, are our only hope’. Unbelievably, here in Europe we’re
drifting ever further into Star Wars territory.
Nov 3, 2009, 00:20
Commentary
Palestinians won’t be patient forever
By Linda S. Heard
There’s little good news in the West Bank and
Gaza nowadays. But the long-suffering Palestinians are used to that.
Nov 3, 2009, 00:18
Commentary
Dollar trouble
By Mike Whitney
The dollar is not going to crash. In fact, many
economists believe that the dollar will rally when the Fed ends its
quantitative easing program (QE) sometime in early 2010.
Nov 3, 2009, 00:16
Commentary
US joins ranks of failed states
By Paul Craig Roberts
The US has every characteristic of a failed
state.
Nov 3, 2009, 00:14
Commentary
New names for Wall Street’s old games
By Jerry Mazza
You remember how Wall Street was going to reform
itself? Stop with the loans to borrowers who couldn’t pay them back and so on.
Well, before you can say subprime lending bites it, some of Wall Street’s
oldest games are back with some brand new names and games, for consumers,
corporations and investors, sort of an equal opportunity casino, where everyone
gets screwed.
Nov 2, 2009, 00:22
Commentary
Beware a Times/Pentagon ‘virtual coup’ on Afghanistan
By Harvey Wasserman
Some military coups are still done the
old-fashioned way. Tanks surround the capital, generals grab the radio station,
the slaughter begins.
Nov 2, 2009, 00:16
Commentary
Empire in trouble
By Deepak Tripathi
President Barack Obama is having a bad time. The
health reforms he so confidently promised have been bogged down in Congress for
months; his Defense Secretary, Robert Gates, said the other day that the pledge
to close the Guantanamo Bay prison camp by January 2010 would take longer to
fulfill; Obama’s top general, Stanley McChrystal, appeared to break military
discipline by openly demanding forty thousand extra US troop for the Afghan
War, warning his commander-in-chief that otherwise the mission would fail; the
award of the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize to President Obama brought more scorn and
disbelief than congratulations and encouragement; it generated an odd unity of
purpose between the Left and the Right, his erstwhile supporters and bitter
adversaries out to destroy his young presidency; and two decades after the
United States defeated its superpower adversary, a resurgent Russia made plain
that sanctions against Iran over its suspicious-looking nuclear program were
not acceptable to Moscow.
Nov 2, 2009, 00:12
Commentary
War criminals are becoming the arbiters of law
By Paul Craig Roberts
The double standard under which the Israeli
government operates is too much for everyone except the brainwashed Americans. Even
a columnist in the very Israeli Jerusalem Post can see the double
standard displayed by “all of Israel
now speaking in one voice against the Goldstone report.”
Oct 16, 2009, 00:15
Commentary
Peace prize for promises, promises . . .
By Linda S. Heard
Rarely has a president of the United States held
the hopes of so many around the world in his hands as President Barack Obama.
Prior to his inauguration as the 44th US president last January, he promised to
right the wrongs committed by his predecessor and to bring peace to our
troubled planet. Nine months on and we’re still in the gestation period. Many
are wondering whether the stork will ever deliver the baby.
Oct 16, 2009, 00:09
Commentary
Constitutional hypocrisy
By Joel S. Hirschhorn
Millions of Americans are politically informed,
smart, active and angry. They see many wrongs in our political and government
system. They are fed up with politics as usual, meaning corrosive corruption of
politicians by corporate and other special interests. They see little good in
either the Democrat or Republican parties. And they almost always share a
common bond: They love and honor the US Constitution, even though they may see
some flaws in it. Yet they are also constitutional hypocrites.
Oct 16, 2009, 00:07
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