contributions

Prospects for Peace on Earth
By David Swanson This time of year is ideal for reflecting on the miracle of Christmas 1914, that famous temporary truce and friendship between opposing sides in the midst of a war. Here was a new type of slaughter confronted with a new type of humanism, the leading edges of two opposing trends. An op-ed in the New York Times last week by Steven Pinker and Joshua Goldstein argues that peace, rather than war, was the dominant development, and that over the (…)

Canada has announced its intention to withdraw from the Kyoto treaty on greenhouse gas emissions (GGE), sandbagging the other signatories to the convention. The Kyoto protocol, initially adopted in Kyoto, Japan in 1997, was designed to combat global warming with the agreement allowing countries like China and India take voluntary, but non-binding steps to reduce their greenhouse gas carbon emissions.
International condemnation was swift.
China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin said (…)

The right has been in power for a long time now, and now, in its 35th year in government, in the 64th year of the state, it has turned to the task of reshaping the country’s character and faces almost no opposition.
Anyone who says this is a matter of a few inconsequential laws is leading others astray; anyone who claims a reversible procedure is being deceptive; anyone who states reassuringly that this is a passing phase is trying to put one over. Even the person who thinks it’s just an (…)

Global systemic crisis – USA 2012/2016: An insolvent and ungovernable country
As announced in previous GEABs, in this issue our team presents its anticipations on the changes in the United States for the period 2012-2016. This country, the epicentre of the global systemic crisis and pillar of the international system since 1945, will go through a particularly tragic in its history during these five years. Already insolvent it will become ungovernable bringing about, for Americans and those (…)

The White House is signing off on a controversial new law that would authorize the U.S. military to arrest and indefinitely detain alleged al Qaeda members or other terrorist operatives captured on American soil.
As the bill neared final passage in the House of Representatives and the Senate on Wednesday, the Obama administration announced it would support passage of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which contains slightly watered-down provisions giving the military a front (…)

December 15, 2011
Syria Coverage Update: BBC Reporter was Detained & Prevented from Covering US-NATO- Syrian Operations in Turkey!
By Sibel Edmonds
It’s now been exactly 24 days since Boiling Frogs reported on the ongoing joint US-NATO secret training camp in the US Air Force base in Incirlik, Turkey. Despite the US media blackout, every newspaper in Turkey covered the story of the BBC reporter who was detained and prevented from covering the US-NATO-Syrian operations.
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8 Stories Buried By the Corporate Media That You Need to Know About.
Not all news stories are treated equally
December 15, 2011
As 2011 comes to a close, we will see lists of the year’s most memorable events and most important people, as is the pattern every year. But not all stories are created equal. When the corporate media bury significant developments in the back pages of the paper or the second to last paragraph of an article, it’s easy for stories to go unnoticed.
As usual, (…)

Has the Israel Lobby Gone Too Far?
Will a recent attack on progressive journalists help spark a sea-change in the debate over Middle East policy?
December 16, 2011 When Josh Block, a former communications director for the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), sent an “oppo dump” about a group of progressive journalists and bloggers at the Center for American Progress (CAP) and Media Matters to a list-serv of conservative journalists and asked them to push the narrative (…)

Court told that video later released by WikiLeaks as ’Collateral Murder’ found in box in Manning’s quarters in Iraq, ready to post
The US soldier accused of leaking a trove of classified documents to Wikileaks felt fragile in the army and created an online female alter ego, a military court heard.
During a hearing to establish whether Private Bradley Manning will face a court martial, defence lawyers questioned witnesses over the mental state of their client and accused investigators of (…)

Important news media recently published an extensive report on chronic renal insufficiency (CRI), a disease suffered by peasants living in the Pacific region of Central America. The cause of this disease has not been scientifically proven, which could give rise to confusion in the management of this disturbing public health issue. Newspaper articles speculate that an alleged contamination with pesticides and herbicides is one of the causes of chronic kidney disease (CKD) affecting cane (…)