contributions

By John Feffer
The actor Will Smith is no one’s image of a suicide bomber. With his boyish face, he has often played comic roles. Even as the last man on earth in I Am Legend, he retains a wise-cracking, ironic demeanor. And yet, surrounded by a horde of hyperactive vampires at the end of that film, Smith clasps a live grenade to his chest and throws himself at the enemy in a final burst of heroic sacrifice.
Wait a second: surely that wasn’t a suicide bombing? Will Smith wasn’t reciting (…)

Toppling a Coup, Part II: The Honduras Regime Is Like an Onion
Posted by Al Giordano - August 8, 2009 at 11:39 am
By Al Giordano
In three decades of organizing or reporting on social movements, one develops a very good memory of which of them won their battles, which were defeated, and what made the difference between those that won and those that lost.
If it could be boiled down to a single factor it would be this: In victorious struggles, a critical mass of the organizers arm (…)

By Al Giordano
Last Saturday, at a hastily called public meeting in Tegucigalpa, more than one hundred rank and file participants in the Honduran civil resistance and some of its known leaders came out to speak with Ivan Marovich, the Serbian resistance veteran who had been invited by local and national anti-coup organizations to share his experiences.
It was one of three such sessions, and the only public meeting of the three. Almost immediately upon the completion of the screening of (…)

How many journalists accurately report the horrendous carnage in the Occupied Palestinian, Iraqi, and Afghan Territories? Answer: very few, and in racist, pro-war, pro-Zionist Australia (aka UStralia, Ozrael, Ozraelia) almost none.
Accordingly hearty congratulations and earnest approbation must be given to Australian Truthful Journalist Reuben Brand for telling the truth about neocon- and racist Zionist-promoted US Alliance wars and occupations, AND for being that extremely rare kind of (…)

by Andrew Gavin Marshall, Global Research, August 7, 2009
Introduction While there is much talk of a recovery on the horizon, commentators are forgetting some crucial aspects of the financial crisis. The crisis is not simply composed of one bubble, the housing real estate bubble, which has already burst. The crisis has many bubbles, all of which dwarf the housing bubble burst of 2008. Indicators show that the next possible burst is the commercial real estate bubble. However, the main (…)

by Mike Whitney, Global Research, August 8, 2009
The World needs a breather from the US. And they’ll get it sooner than many think We’re making this way too complicated. It’s simple really.
The Fed has only one tool at its disposal; to create more money. Typically, the way the Fed adds to the money supply is by lowering interest rates. When the Fed lowers rates below the rate of inflation; they’re basically selling dollars for under a buck. That’s a good deal, so, naturally, speculators (…)

The Baltic Dry Index, which tracks shipping costs and is viewed as leading indicator for commodity prices, has had its worst week since the peak of the financial crisis last October, as Chinese demand slowed. By Garry White, 07 Aug 2009
The index fell from 3,350 to 2,772 this week – a fall of 17.2pc - as imports of iron ore and coal slowed down. The index is now 35pc lower than its 2009 high, hit on June 3. Earlier this week Ian Ashby, head of iron ore at miner BHP Billiton, said at the (…)

By David Glenn Cox
There is a video making the rounds on the Internet of a woman dragging her child on a leash through a Verizon store. There was scads of outrage and the mother was charged with a felony. Well, Dr. Obvious says that child abuse emanates from poor parenting skills.
When my wife was pregnant with our first child, another couple dropped by to congratulate us. As we chatted the husband said, “Enjoy those house plants while you can!”
“Why is that?" I asked.
“Oh, the baby (…)

Jerusalem – Ma’an – Eight Palestinians were injured when they were assaulted by Israeli forces who delivered demolition orders in the Al-Bustan neighborhood of East Jerusalem on Wednesday.
Jerusalem Police used tear gas to disperse residents who confronted the Israeli officers serving five demolition orders in the densely populated neighborhood, where there are already 90 standing demolition orders.
Israeli police also seized the ID card of Musa Odeh, a member of the Al-Bustan Committee, (…)

The following is extracted and edited from a letter to Charles Clarke, my Member of Parliament. Morocco is being extremely active in promoting its new plan for the the disputed territory of Western Sahara, which it partially occupies, and has had a number of “constructive” talks with European politicians in recent weeks. Morocco has been praised for its efforts by a number of individuals and bodies, including political representatives of the EU. It appears that the way is being smoothed for (…)