contributions

Reporters Without Borders today condemned a judge’s decision to open a judicial investigation against Roberto Ferrario, the editor of the left-wing website Bellaciao ( http://bellaciao.org ), in response to a libel suit by the Saint Nazaire-based shipyard, Chantiers de l’Atlantique, over a critical press release by the USM-CGT union that was posted on the site.
“Ferrario was not the author of the statement which Chantiers de l’Atlantique considered libellous,” the press freedom (…)

Columnists like George Will should stand up for our military instead of Bush By Mary MacElveen December 1, 2006
When George Will of the Washington Post had this to say of Senator-elect James Webb as Webb tried to avoid President Bush at all costs, “Webb certainly has conveyed what he is: a boor. Never mind the patent disrespect for the presidency. Webb’s more gross offense was calculated rudeness toward another human being — one who, disregarding many hard things Webb had said about him (…)

In legal terms, there is probable cause to believe that Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, and Powell violated Title 18, United States Code, Section 371, which prohibits conspiracies to defraud the United States, notes Elizabeth de la Vega.
Elizabeth de la Vega, appearing on behalf of the United States. That is a phrase I’ve uttered hundreds of times in twenty years as a federal prosecutor. I retired two years ago. So, obviously, I do not now speak for any U.S. Attorney’s Office, nor do I (…)

Everyday the US Corporate Media bombards America with the "huge spike in violence" that inevitably means that Iraq is descending into civil war. We’re told there are two choices, it’s a civil war, or its "al Qaeda" - but there is a third option the corporate media refuses to utter.
Even high-school slackers have heard of the age-old strategy "Divide and Conquer". Is it possible that there are outside forces working this strategy in Iraq today? Perhaps rogue elements inside some (…)

“No man is justified in doing evil on the ground of expediency.” - Theodore Roosevelt
Washington, D.C. - On Tuesday, Nov. 28, 2006, Mohammed Omer, a 22-year-old Palestinian journalist/photographer, shared his eyewitness account of living and working in Israeli-Occupied Gaza, a densely population area that 1.4 million people call home. He was raised there in the Rafah refugee camp, located near the border with Egypt. He had the opportunity to know and admire Olympia, WA-based peace (…)

Bush is to blame and not the Iraqi people and we must remember that By Mary MacElveen November 29, 2006
In the American criminal justice system victims of rape, sexual harassment is often blamed by the defense attorney representing the rapist. As I was reading this Washington Post column As Iraq Deteriorates, Iraqis Get More Blame the same can be said for blaming the Iraqi people for the strife and civil war that now surrounds them.
I would say, let us put the blame squarely where it (…)

Noam Chomsky and Gilbert Achcar’s New Book: Perilous Power - by Stephen Lendman
Noam Chomsky needs no introduction. He’s MIT Institute Professor Emeritus of linguistics and a leading anti-war critic and voice for over 40 years for social equity and justice. He’s also one of the world’s most influential and widely cited intellectuals on the Left. Gilbert Achcar is a Lebanese-French academic, author, social activist, Middle East expert and professor of politics and international relations (…)

Closing the Collapse Gap Speech by Dmitry Orlov on the inevitable collapse of the American economy Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I am not an expert or a scholar or an activist. I am more of an eye-witness. I watched the Soviet Union collapse, and I have tried to put my observations into a concise message. I will leave it up to you to decide just how urgent a message it is.
My talk tonight is about the lack of collapse-preparedness here in the United States. I will compare it with the (…)

Bush has no right to be called Commander in Chief
By Mary MacElveen
November 28, 2006
President Bush just does not get it especially as one reads Bush says U.S. won’t pull out of Iraq. This mad man states, "There’s one thing I’m not going to do, I’m not going to pull our troops off the battlefield before the mission is complete," Your illegal mission, President Bush was set to fail right from the beginning since there is NO WINNING the war on terrorism. Besides that, any terrorist (…)

“The hardest tumble a man can make is fall over his own bluff.” - Ambrose Bierce
President George W. Bush is in denial about the hell-on-earth that he and his Neocon cronies have created in Iraq. O.J. Simpson is in denial, too, about his supposed involvement in a sensational, grisly double murder. The two episodes are, of course, beyond any comparison. The issue of O.J. and Bush’s refusals to see their own personal culpability in these matters, however, is a trait that they both share in (…)