Geert Wilders‘ rejection of Dutch austerity measures caused the government of the Netherlands to fall [AP] The triumph of nationalism How extremist and nationalist forces are growing across Europe in the face of financial crisis and growing xenophobia. London, United Kingdom - “The battle for France has just started”, declared a triumphant Marine Le Pen after her impressive [...]
U.S. Hard Line in Failed Iran Talks Driven by Israel By Gareth Porter link http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article31425.htm May 25, 2012 “Information Clearing House” — Negotiations between Iran and the United States and other members of the P5+1 group in Baghdad ended in fundamental disagreement Thursday over the position of the P5+1 offering no [...]
(Photo: Clayton Brascoupe)Nayeli Guzman is a young Mexican woman who went to New Mexico to be part of the effort to restore traditional agriculture. Throughout the US, Native, Chicano, and other peoples are rejecting industrialized agriculture and are growing their own food instead, thereby reclaiming the health of their traditions, culture, bodies, and land. They [...]
By Pepe Escobar Iran And Europe, ’Till Death Do Us Part So the grand Barack Obama administration foreign policy strategy of trying to square the circle between an Iranian nuclear deal and getting the eurozone economy back on the road slouches towards … what exactly? (See War and cheeseburgers Asia Times Online, May 22) Not even Zeus [...]
Laying the Foundations for Preemptive Nuclear War Against Iran By Nile Bowie As prospects for a preemptive strike on Iran remain ever present, the recent round of talks between the P5+1 and Iran in Baghdad on May 23rd, 2012 have resulted in a familiar stalemate. As a precondition for any deal to [...]
(Image: Emily Flake) Beyond Corporate Capitalism: Not So Wild a Dream by Gar Alperovitz and Thomas Hanna It’s time to put the taboo subject of public ownership back on the progressive agenda. It is the only way to solve some of the most serious problems facing the nation. We contend that it is possible not only to talk [...]
The Special Loophole in Hell for War Lawyers By David Swanson http://warisacrime.org/content/special-loophole-hell-war-lawyers The strict rule of law is an ideal and a fantasy. Conflicting and archaic words must be interpreted, and doing so is an art, not a science. But there is an enormous chasm between honest attempts to [...]
Photo Credit: Steve Lovegrove via Shutterstock.com Goodbye Fish and Shellfish? Meet the Biggest Threat to Our Oceans As emissions continue to rise, the world’s oceans are becoming corrosive, threatening shellfish, corals and the entire ocean food web. May 23, 2012 | LIKE THIS ARTICLE ? Join our mailing list: Sign up to stay up to date on [...]
Photo Credit: michaeljung via Shutterstock.com How the US Sold Africa to Multinationals Like Monsanto, Cargill, DuPont, PepsiCo and Others The G8 scheme does nothing to address the problems that are at the core of hunger and malnutrition but will serve only to further poverty and inequality. May 23, 2012 | Driving through Ngong Hills, not far [...]
The IMF has no intention of softening the terms of Greece’s austerity package, says Christine Lagarde. Photograph: Emmanuel Fradin for the Guardian It’s payback time: don’t expect sympathy – Lagarde to Greeks Take responsibility and stop trying to avoid taxes, International Monetary Fund chief tells Athens The International Monetary Fund has ratcheted up the pressure [...]
To restore probity in public life, Jeremy Hunt must go Those in British public life need to remember what proper conduct is Editorial guardian.co.uk, Saturday 26 May 2012 20.40 BST Ask even the most pugnacious Labour frontbencher how Leveson is playing on constituency doorsteps and the answer is: it’s not. Ordinary voters care about jobs, prices, our faltering [...]
the Arctic region too fragile to tamper with.Protestor dressed as Grim Reaper outside Shell annual meeting in London. (Photo: rikki (indymedia). Used under Creative Commons license) How Obama Helped Authorize Shell’s Drilling the Arctic by Pratap Chatterjee President Barack Obama personally helped Shell obtain authorization to drill for oil in Alaska, according to a [...]
(Photo: Greenpeace)A frontpage report in today’s New York Times paints the picture of a president eager to open a gateway to arctic drilling that members of his own energy and climate change advisory panel thought was both surprising and “improbable”. Ignoring Protest and Warnings, Obama Ushers in Era of Unprecedented Arctic Drilling The president, who once [...]
I wish I were Egyptian so I could vote 22 May 2012 More than 50 million Egyptians will vote for a president tomorrow, the first time in Egypt’s history after the success of their peaceful and blessed revolution in overthrowing a corrupt, dictatorial regime which perched on their chests for more [...]
Lebanon on the verge of a disaster 23 May 2012 The situation in Lebanon is a cause for concern and even fear. It is clear that there are some fronts, inside and outside of Lebanon who are working on blowing up a sectarian civil war that will push the country to [...]
Rajoy’s government is grappling with high unemployment amid fears of a looming recession [Reuters] Spain has announced an $11bn bailout for its troubled bank, Bankia, a month after nationalising it. Luis de Guindos, the econmy minister, told a congressional committee that the state would have to put at least $11bn into saving Bankia, which he [...]
Jeremy Hunt: minister for Murdoch If this module of the Leveson inquiry has a smoking gun, it is the memo Jeremy Hunt wrote to the prime minister on 19 November 2010 Editorial guardian.co.uk, Thursday 24 May 2012 21.14 BST If this module of the Leveson inquiry has a smoking gun, it is the [...]
NATO Summit A Show Of Force By Paul Heise May 24, 2012 “Information Clearing House” — The NATO summit held in Chicago last weekend reflects everything that is wrong with our society. The NATO summit put on display how we can and do conjure up foreign and domestic threats to [...]
Karzai Flips Out on Rep. Rohrabacher Jason Ditz, May 22, 2012 Print This | Share This | Comment In an interview today on CNN, Afghan President Hamid Karzai was asked about reports that Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R – CA) is banned from entering Afghanistan. Karzai confirmed the ban, and went on to say that: “A [...]
War With Iran Has Already Begun Bipartisan support for sanctions spells bloodshed to come by Nathan Fuller, May 24, 2012 Print This | Share This On Friday, 93% of the U.S. House of Representatives affirmed a resolution escalating America’s already aggressive position on Iran from “crippling” sanctions to a zero-tolerance policy on nuclear weapons. The Congressional Research [...]
Anarchist Studies: Syndicalism, Anarchism and Marxism Wed, 05/23/2012 – 14:02 — Anarcho Printer-friendly versionThis is the published version of a reply to an article by Marxist Ralph Darlington in Anarchist Studies (vol. 17, no. 2). Darlington’s original article appeared in Volume 17, Number 1 of Anarchist Studies and discusses the anarchist origins of syndicalism and refutes attempts [...]
To stay on top of important articles like these, sign up to receive the latest updates from TomDispatch.com here. Conflict and intrigue over valuable energy supplies have been features of the international landscape for a long time. Major wars over oil have been fought every decade or so since World War I, and smaller engagements [...]
Demonstrators protest against government austerity measures outside the Greek Parliament in Athens last month. (Photo: CNN)Greece’s situation is not an isolated event, but a bellwether for the industrial world and beyond. The fallout from the 2008 global crisis hasn’t reached bottom yet, and the depths will be dug deeper as the Euro crisis spreads — [...]
Humpback whale, Wilhelmina Bay, western Antarctic Peninsula. December 2010. (WWF / Michael Harte)”Commercial over-exploitation of the world’s fish stocks is severe,” he continued. “Many species have been hunted to fractions of their original populations. More than half of global fisheries are exhausted, and a further third are depleted. Between 30 and 35 per cent of critical marine [...]
Assange talking to Occupy LSX. (photo: Matthew Taylor) Assange Fate to Be Determined Next Week UK Supreme Court to announce May 30 if Assange is to be extradicted to Sweden – Common Dreams staff link http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/05/23-1 Julian Assange will find out next Wednesday whether he will be extradited to Sweden to face sex crime [...]
. It won’t be a pleasant world she lives in. Cities and countries will be locked in an expensive battle with rapidly rising seas; but after spending trillions of dollars, most of the world’s ports will have been abandoned anyway. Up to seventy percent of the planet’s species will be wiped out. Gone. Vanished. Kaput. [...]
Young girl waiting at a cash grant distribution by Oxfam GB in Al Hodeidah governorate, district of Al-Jarrahi, Yemen in March 2012. (photo: Wolfgang Gressmann/Oxfam, March 2012)The aid groups, including Oxfam, Save the Children and CARE, report that 10 million people, 44 percent of the population, don’t have enough to eat and say that the [...]
Concerns Grow Over Stability of Fukushima Fuel Pool 4 Next strong earthquake could cause release of far more radiation than the initial meltdown – Common Dreams staff link http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/05/23-8 Whether the spent fuel pool at Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant Unit 4 can withstand another strong earthquake has become a growing concern around the world. Fukushima’s [...]
“The single biggest act of civil disobedience in Canadian history.” http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/05/23-5 ‘Biggest Act of Civil Disobedience in Canadian History’ Marchers defy Bill 78; Neighborhoods fill with sound of banging pots and pans – Common Dreams staff That’s how yesterday’s Montreal protest is being described today. Hundreds of thousands red-shirted demonstrators defied Quebec‘s new “anti-protest” law [...]
Palestinian history is now evolving in two opposing directions. (Activestills) Palestine’s Future in Safe Hands By Ramzy Baroud The commemoration of the Nakba needs to be more than a ritualistic event; the remembrance should be integrated into a clear and comprehensive national project aimed at offsetting the harm wrought to generations of Palestinians. There [...]
Egyptians lineup to choose their president on May 23, 2012. (Aljazeera) By Hasan Afif El-Hasan Arab people are demanding democracy after living for decades under authoritarian regimes suffering systematic violations of their natural rights where injustice, impunity, police torture, battering and excessive use of deadly force were the norm. Ramzy Baroud put it [...]
Photo by Reuters I’ve just returned home from the NATO summit and I can’t stop focusing on all that we don’t know after dozens of world leaders met for two days. I have to wonder if the Obama Administration is disappointed in the results. At the end of all of those hours of talking, the [...]
Piers Morgan told me how to hack a phone, says Jeremy Paxman Presenter tells Leveson inquiry former Mirror editor teased Ulrika Jonsson about private conversations she had Dan Sabbagh and Lisa O’Carroll guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 23 May 2012 16.15 BST Jeremy Paxman at the Leveson inquiry: Piers Morgan knew how to hack phones. Source: ITN Link [...]
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg said the site was going public ‘for our employees and our investors’. Photograph: Kimihiro Hoshino/AFP/Getty Images Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg sees stock tumble amid IPO lawsuits Now they call it Fadebook – shareholders call in lawyers as stock price tumbles and regulators are not far behind Facebook’s founder, Mark Zuckerberg, has gone [...]
Eurozone leaders Angela Merkel and Francois Hollande talk ahead of the latest Brussels summit. Photograph: Lionel Bonaventure/AFP/Getty Images Eurozone crisis: Germany and France clash over eurobonds at summit French president François Hollande marks his Brussels debut by challenging chancellor Angela Merkel over bailout Ian Traynor in Brussels and Patrick Wintour guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 23 May 2012 20.37 BST European [...]
Why Even Failed Activism Succeeds By David Swanson http://warisacrime.org/content/why-even-failed-activism-succeeds I enjoy reading histories of past activism, including memoirs by long-time activists, such as Lawrence Wittner’s new book, Working for Peace and Justice. Almost every such account includes belated discoveries of the extent to which a government was been spying on [...]
Sectarian war back in Lebanon 21 May 2012 Lebanon is currently going through an unprecedented level of sectarian tension which has not been seen since the signing of the Taef Agreement in 1989 that ended 16 years of bloody conflicts of the Lebanese civil war. Shortly after the deadly clashes [...]
Evidence Continues to Mount for Ticking ‘Methane Time Bomb’ – Common Dreams staff New research that utilized both ground-based measurements and aerial surveys in specific sub-arctic regions in Alaska and Greenland has discovered approximately 150,000 ‘methane seeps’ – a phenomenon where methane gas previously held in the frozen permafrost beneath tundras or under arctic sea [...]
When West Bank settlers shoot at unarmed Palestinians while Israeli soldiers look on without intervening, that’s a story–especially when one of the Palestinians suffers a head wound. So it’s natural that this weekend’s conflict near the Palestinian village of Asira al-Qibliya has been covered widely–in 972, the Guardian, theWashington Post, Haaretz, the Daily Dish, and elsewhere. Still, it’s important [...]
, May 22, 2012 Print This | Share This Following in the rich history of fake endings to wars during the Obama Administration’s first term, the US and other NATO member nations are loudly hyping their endorsement of a transition pact, which is being presented as an “irreversible pullout” of occupation forces. [...]
To get their searing point across, a new educational and fundraising campaign by the UK-basedFreedom From Torture, which gives medical care to survivors of torture, features help-wanted“ads” in mainstream papers. “The government of a Middle Eastern state is recruiting a senior torturer to work in a well-equipped prison. Our ideal candidate would be prepared to inflict extreme pain [...]
A bulldozer dumps a load of trash into a burn pit just 300 yards from the runway at Bagram Airfield, January 2012. An Army memo from 2011 found the burn pit is associated with “long-term” health effects on soldiers at Bagram.Photo: U.S. Army Leaked Memo: Afghan ‘Burn Pit’ Could Wreck Troops’ Hearts, Lungs By Spencer [...]
You may be finding it interesting to read the ‘solutions’ being pushed to the economic ills of various ountries. Austerity once all the rage seems to be getting replaced by a rapid expansion in money supply an alleged parallel increase in jobs and credit and the stage is set for [...]
Invoices seen by the Guardian purport to show how a private investigation firm made payments in return for confidential information. Photograph: Dominic Lipinski/PA link http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/may/22/metropolitan-police-anti-corruption-allegations Scotland Yard is investigating allegations that detectives working for its anti-corruption unit have been paid thousands of pounds by a firm of private investigators. A parliamentary inquiry was told today that [...]
Occupy Wall Street protesters on the Brooklyn Bridge on October 1, 2011. (Photo: JSsocal) The Occupy Movement and the Politics of Educated Hope Friday, 18 May 2012 14:46By Henry A. Giroux, Truthout | Op-Ed “To be truly radical is to make hope possible rather than despair inevitable.” -Raymond Williams American society has lost its claim on democracy. One indication of [...]
Kenny MacAskill said an inquiry is a matter for the courts. Picture: Jane Barlow By GARETH ROSE Published on Wednesday 23 May 2012 00:00 A SERIES of high-profile figures have backed calls for an inquiry into the conviction of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi for the Lockerbie bombing. War correspondent Kate Adie, social [...]
Seepage and Suffering: Obama’s Civil War Scenario for Afghanistan WRITTEN BY CHRIS FLOYD TUESDAY, 22 MAY 2012 16:37 “The winds in Chicago Have torn me to shreds; Reality has always Had too many heads.” – Bob Dylan, “Cold Irons Bound” So now we know the grand plan of the Peace [...]
Greek Leftist Leader Alexis Tsipras: ‘It’s a War Between People and Capitalism’ Greece‘s eurozone fate may now be in the hands of the 37-year-old political firebrand and his Syriza party By Helena Smith in Athens May 22, 2012 “The Guardian‘ – – “I don’t believe in heroes or saviours,” says [...]
Julian Assange Interviews President of Ecuador, Rafael Correa Ecuador’s Fight Against Its Media Vultures link to article and video http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article31397.htm Video Posted May 22, 2012 In 2010 Correa was taken hostage in an attempted coup d’etat. After the attempt he launched a controversial counter-offensive Ecuador’s media, which he blames for the coup [...]
