contributions

Israel launches air strikes on Gaza, more than 200 dead
By ERICA SILVERMAN in Gaza City
Israeli warplanes, in waves of unprecedented airstrikes against dozens of Hamas targets, killed more than 200 people and wounded nearly 400 people Saturday morning in the Gaza Strip.
The relentless attacks, which sent black smoke billowing into the skies and created panic on the streets below, targeted the presidential compound, the police headquarters and the central prison.
Gaza’s most senior (…)

Kern’s Krew Collection of Peeping Toms by James Nimmo
(OKLAHOMA CITY) At the website of Oklahomans for Excellence in Science Education (OESE, http://www.oklascience.org), there is a professional analysis of the latest resurrection of Rep. Sally Kern’s bill that would allow for the recitation of bible verses as "facts" and "evidence" in math and science classes in Oklahoma schools with the teachers forced to accept such balderdash as legitimate answers. Though this bill was vetoed (…)

Dear secretary general
I bring to your attention that the government of Israel has started on midday of 27 Dec. air raids with heavy weaponries on various places on Gaza city. In these raids large number of innocent civilians has been targeted intentionally. Up till 3pm Middle East time more than 155 people have been killed. The injuries are many fold of this number. In spite of massacre, military personnel of Israel have recently declared that these air raids are only beginning of (…)

Bellaciao: solidarity with the Palestinian People
More than 230 dead
The blood-soaked Israeli occupiers has staged massacre after massacre on the people of Palestine.
Their pretext is always the same: "to fight terror", but the hidden aim has always been the eradication of the Palestinians.
On 27 Dec 2008, the occupation has escalated its indiscriminate air attacks on populated urban areas in Gaza.
This pattern of actions constitutes genocide under international law. This (…)

Farewell to pro-Peace, pro-human rights, anti-war hero and Literature Nobel Laureate Harold Pinter 1930-2008 who exposed the human soul in his brilliant plays and also exposed huge Anglo-American crimes against Humanity in Occupied Iraq (post-invasion violent and non-violent excess deaths now total about 2 million, refugees total 6 million). Outstanding Jewish British playwright, humanitarian and 2005 Literature Nobel Laureate Harold Pinter died on Christmas Eve, 2008 at the age of 78. He (…)

ICTR-ADAD Lawyer Peter Erlinder gives us the shocking inside scoop on what the recent decisions of the Rwanda Tribunal really mean...
http://www.commondreams.org/view/20...

* Article originally published in spanish language in El Libertario, Venezuela, # 54, September-October 2008, that analyzes and goes over the problem of criminal violence through its social impact on contemporary Venezuela.
All opinion polls conducted in the country agree on one topic: the insecurity is the main problem for the citizens. The numbers of homicides and personal injuries place us, at present, as one of the most dangerous countries on the continent. This situation is (…)

Michael Connell, 45, webmaster to the stars of the neocon world, died instantly just before 6 p.m. Friday (Dec. 19) in a plane crash while landing at the Akron-Canton Regional Airport in Ohio. Connell had supposedly testified by deposition in a federal court case just 6 weeks earlier in a case that Republican/neocon operatives had long attempted to quash. http://moritzlaw.osu.edu/electionlaw/litigation/documents/Lincoln-Response-11-4-08-ExA.pdf
1 (…)

All Right, But Just This Once. By David Glenn Cox
Years ago there was a “Far Side” cartoon with an angry lynch mob in front of an old, Western jail. The sheriff was addressing the mob, “Now you boys know that I can’t just turn him over to you without a fair trial. Well, all right, but just this once.”
That pretty much covers my feelings towards Mr. Madoff. I’m all for law and order, but this admitted criminal, who used trust to defraud his victims, will now use the legal system to (…)

AND TO ALL, A GOOD NIGHT A Contemporary Christmas Tale
John Chuckman
It was only a matter of time before Santa Claus himself came under the Neanderthal-eyed scrutiny of American intelligence. After all, Santa’s citizenship is unknown, and he crosses borders with no passport or other form of identification. No one knows whether he even has a valid pilot’s license.
Although his image is well known, there is no official photograph on file with American border control, and he has never (…)