News
HAITI EARTHQUAKE LIVE BLOG: Who to Follow and What to Read for Breaking Developments
Here is the link to Thursday's live blog. Please check the page regularly for updates.
7:45am PDT: The BBC has a disturbing first hand video report from a hospital in Port-au-Prince where, last night, injured people waiting for treatment slept amongst dead bodies.
UN Appeal for Haitian Quake Relief Only Half Funded
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - Two months after the ruinous January 12 earthquake in Haiti, the United Nations' $1.44 billion revised humanitarian appeal for the country is only 49 percent funded, UN officials said today.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, OCHA, says humanitarian work is picking up speed, but emergency shelter and sanitation are still urgently needed ahead of the rainy season. Steady rains could come as soon as the end of March, and hurricane season starts in June.
Israel Seals off West Bank
Israel has imposed a full closure of the occupied Palestinian territory of West Bank, announcing that no one will be allowed in or out for 48 hours.
Ehud Barak, the Israeli defence minister, made the move amid reports of possible protests by Palestinians around the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem after Friday prayers.
The Left's Answer to Tea Parties? A Cup of Joe
A burgeoning netroots movement has emerged from what its founder characterized as "ranting on my Facebook page."
Several weeks ago, filmmaker Annabel Park posted a note on her Facebook profile expressing "frustration ... listening to news coverage that made it seem like the Tea Party was representative of America."
Pakistan: Suicide Bomb Attacks in Lahore Cap Particularly Grim Week
Suicide blasts rocked Pakistan’s cultural capital of Lahore for the second time this week, killing at least 45 people Friday and rebuffing notions that recent arrests and killings of Taliban leaders have weakened the militants' capacity to strike deep inside the country.
Robert Reich | The Sham Recovery
Are we finally in a recovery? Who's "we," kemosabe? Big global companies, Wall Street, and high-income Americans who hold their savings in financial instruments are clearly doing better. As to the rest of us – small businesses along Main Streets, and middle and lower-income Americans – forget it.
Texas Approves Curriculum Revised by Conservatives
AUSTIN, Tex. - After three days of turbulent meetings, the Texas Board of Education on Friday voted to approve a social studies curriculum that will put a conservative stamp on history and economics textbooks, stressing the superiority of American capitalism, questioning the Founding Fathers' commitment to a purely secular government and presenting Republican political philosophies in a more positive light.
The vote was 11 to 4, with 10 Republicans and one Democrat voting for the curriculum, and four Democrats voting against.
Final Health Care Bill Vote Due As Early As Next Week
Nearly a year after Democrats introduced legislation to reform the health care industry - first by flirting with the prospect of having a government-run program to compete with private insurers and then floating a proposal to expand Medicare to a younger demographic - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Friday that Congress is ready to vote on a final bill as early as next week that doesn't include either of those plans.
The 'Public Option': Democrats' Scam Becomes More Transparent
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about what seemed to be a glaring (and quite typical) scam perpetrated by Congressional Democrats: all year long, they insisted that the White House and a majority of Democratic Senators vigorously supported a public option, but the only thing oh-so-unfortunately preventing its enactment was the
Six Democratic Senators Poised to Kill Student Loan Reform
Graduating from college is a great feeling. Not so great: being saddled with $23,200 in student loans, the average debt owed by graduates of the class of 2008, according to the Project on Student Debt.
“Soul of a Citizen” Excerpt: The Real Rosa Parks
One reason people despair so easily these days is that we often have little sense of how change has occurred in times past, and of what it took for ordinary people to persist until they prevailed. The Rosa Parks story offers an example that we all think we know, but where the story as usually told omits the key context and blurs the key lessons.
Taboo Thwarts Candor on Israel/Iran
Participants at an otherwise informative discussion on "Iran at a Crossroads" at the Senate on Wednesday seemed at pains to barricade the doors against the proverbial elephant being admitted into the room - in this case, Israel.
This, despite the fact that the agenda virtually dictated that the elephant be allowed in - the cavernous hearing room also could have accommodated it - however awkward and untidy the atmosphere might have become.
David Sirota | The Tax War Goes Online
Is the Internet everywhere or is it nowhere?
This question will strike many readers as a navel-gazing exercise in post-modern existential inquiry, prompting reflections on the 21st-century meaning of location (is an IP address really an address?) and space (is cyberspace actually "space"?). But thanks to Amazon.com, it's become a question about more concrete and imminent issues like budget deficits and tax fairness.
Ask the Chamber of Commerce: Why Is Too Much Not Enough?
Living in these United States, there comes a point at which you throw your hands up in exasperation and despair and ask a fundamental question or two: how much excess profit does corporate America really need? How much bigger do executive salaries and bonuses have to be? How many houses or jets or artworks can be crammed into a life?
After all, as billionaire movie director Steven Spielberg is reported to have said, when all is said and done, "How much better can lunch get?"
Appeals Court says 'Under God' Not a Prayer
The federal court that touched off a furor in 2002 by declaring the words "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance to be an unconstitutional endorsement of religion took another look at the issue Thursday and said the phrase invokes patriotism, not religious faith.
The daily schoolroom ritual is not a prayer, but instead "a recognition of our founders' political philosophy that a power greater than the government gives the people their inalienable rights," said the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco in a 2-1 ruling.
The People's Nuclear Posture Review
Who decides our national and nuclear policy?
(a) REQUIREMENT FOR COMPREHENSIVE REVIEW.
"In order to clarify United States nuclear deterrence policy and strategy for the near term, the Secretary of Defense shall conduct a comprehensive review of the nuclear policy of the United States for the next 5 to 10 years." So says Section 1070 of the National Defense Authorization Act for FY 2008. This clarification of our policy is to be prepared primarily by the Defense Department, in spite of its vested interest in the outcome.
Gazans Struggle to Keep Farming a Family Tradition
Trying to make a living as a farmer in Gaza these days is taking a toll on the family ties so integral to the Palestinian culture. Traditionally, occupations are passed from father to son for generations, and their tie to the land is particularly strong. Before Israel imposed a suffocating blockade on the 14-kilometer-long Gaza Strip in 2007 (as punishment for electing Hamas as its governing party), farmers could make a good living growing carnations and strawberries for export and vegetables for the local market.
Labor and Obama: Sweethearts No More
President Obama's honeymoon with organized labor has finally ended. It was a long honeymoon, though, more than a year and full of passion. But, alas, labor's ardor has cooled.
The pair aren't likely to split up, although, like so many post-honeymoon couples, they are sure to wrangle occasionally - or maybe frequently. And right now is definitely one of those occasions.
Why The US Occupation Makes Iraqi Women Miss Saddam
BAGHDAD - Under Saddam Hussein, women in government got a year's maternity leave; that is now cut to six months. Under the Personal Status Law in force since Jul. 14, 1958, when Iraqis overthrew the British-installed monarchy, Iraqi women had most of the rights that Western women do.
Arab Americans Organize to Get Counted in Census
SAN FRANCISCO - A coalition of Arab-American cultural organizations in the San Francisco Bay Area have launched a grassroots organizing campaign designed to send a clear message to Washington: that they, along with every other Arab in America, are in fact Arab, and not white.
At issue is the format of the 2010 Census form, which has boxes for more than a dozen different racial categories but no racial or ethnic category for people of Arab descent.