Honduran Coup Tries to Halt Advance of Latin American Left
by Roger Burbach
The coup against Manuel Zelaya of Honduras represents a last ditch effort by Honduras’ entrenched economic and political interests to stave off the advance of the new left governments that have taken hold in Latin America over the past decade. As Zelaya proclaimed after being forcibly dumped in Costa Rica: “This is a vicious plot [...]
Posted on July 4th, 2009
Let’s Say Good-Bye to Private Health Insurance
by Eric B. Ross
When it comes to healthcare, is the White House listening? (And, if so, to whom?) President Obama has made a laudable promise to democratize the process of communication between the Executive branch and the American people and his administration has taken some interesting initiatives, but, here’s the point: toward what end? Over the past [...]
Posted on June 30th, 2009
The Road Not Taken Awaits
by Eric B. Ross
Health problems demonstrably vary with class, race, gender, and residence, all critical factors that our market-based health delivery system cannot effectively address. In market economies, where health and health services are, at the end of the day, related to income, the aggregate power of the national economy is not the central issue. As [...]
Posted on June 30th, 2009
Afghanistan, Another Untold Story
by Michael Parenti
Barack Obama is on record as advocating a military escalation in Afghanistan. Before sinking any deeper into that quagmire, we might do well to learn something about recent Afghani history and the role played by the United States.
Less than a month after the 11 September 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, [...]
Posted on June 26th, 2009
Ahmadinejad Re-elected: Israel and Obama’s Iran Puzzle
by Ramzy Baroud
The election victory of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is likely to complicate US President Barack Obama’s new approach to his country’s conflict with Iran. The reason behind the foreseen obstacle is neither the US nor Iran’s refusal to engage in future dialogue but rather Israel’s insistence on a hard-line approach to the problem.
Iran’s presidential elections [...]
Posted on June 24th, 2009
Does Israel Really Have a Right to Exist?
by Susan Abulhawa
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. And never mind that Israel has always denied [...]
Posted on June 21st, 2009
God’s Truth and Hocus Pocus: Abortion, Capital Punishment and Human Conscience
by Eric B. Ross
In Italy, there is yet another scandal around Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. This time, according to the New York Times (May 29), it involves allegations that Berlusconi, 72, invited about 40 girls, many of them 18, to spend New Year’s Eve at one of his villas in Sardinia. I don’t particularly like Berlusconi. [...]
Posted on June 14th, 2009
Telling Bolivia Who to Vote For: James Carville and Associates
by Eric B. Ross
In 2002, among the many creepy roles of James Carville was his work as strategist at Greenberg Carville Shrum (GCS), when the political consultancy firm he had helped to found went to work to help Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada (nicknamed “Goni”) win the hotly contested presidency of Bolivia. Although they thought the man to [...]
Posted on May 24th, 2009
A Misconceived War, not Torture Photos, Imperils Troops
by Eric B. Ross
President Obama wants to be bi-partisan. This must be what he means. Democratic Senator Lieberman and Republican Senator Graham wrote to him on May 9, urging him not to release photographs of detainees being tortured. “The release of these old photographs of past behavior that has now been clearly prohibited,” they said, [...]
Posted on May 21st, 2009
If We Let The Immoralists Gain the Upper-Hand
by Eric B. Ross
Well, maybe Nancy Pelosi is right, that the CIA was lying to members of Congress about “enhanced interrogation,” a phrase that has rapidly acquired the status of such great old euphemisms as “collateral damage.” We can talk another time about what we have done to the moral integrity of our language –an issue that [...]
Posted on May 16th, 2009