contributions

Life has it’s ups and downs. Willingness to war is UP Worldwide stability is DOWN The price of oil is UP Consumer confidence is DOWN The cost of living is UP The Dow Jones is DOWN The number of U.S.citizens without health care is UP (estimated 47 million) The Cost of health care is UP Support of Health Savings accounts is DOWN The number of countries who despise the U.S. is WAY UP (since Bush took office) The support of the Bush administration by U.S. citizens is DOWN The Euro (…)

Russian President Vladimir Putin said early Sunday he believed Israel was pursuing wider goals in its military campaign than the return of abducted soldiers.
"However complicated the questions are, maximum efforts must be applied to resolve the situation in a peaceful way and I think all efforts have not been exhausted," Putin said.
"However, it is our impression that aside from seeking to return the abducted soldiers, Israel is pursuing wider goals," the Russian president told a (…)

by Mary MacElveen
The United States of America always prides herself as being the land of democracy, but when it comes to elections we fail on so many fronts. Either Americans are too apathetic to vote, or worse those that do vote wonder if their vote even counted through the use of computerized voting machines. When many feel that an election has been stolen from the people, we wonder when the people shall rise up in protest.
As I was looking at these AP photos showing the mass (…)

By Zohar Blumenkrantz, Haaretz Correspondent
Despite promises made by the Transportation Ministry to install temporary X-ray scanning machines in the Kiryat Shmona airport a month ago, Israeli Arabs and Arab tourists are still barred from flights between Tel Aviv and the northern city.
The Transportation Ministry, acting on instruction from the Shin Bet security service, had decided that Arabs would not be allowed on domestic flights between the north and Tel Aviv, following a financial (…)

by Dave Zirin & Derek Tyner
Major League Baseball’s All-Star game is supposed to be a breezy exhibition of the sport’s brightest stars. It’s also a place for baseball’s corporate patrons to be wined, dined and reassured about the current state of the game.
But at this year’s All-Star game in Pittsburgh, the party was crashed by a bull-headed group of about seventy activists determined to change the way the corporate game is played. The Pittsburgh Anti-Sweatshop Community Alliance (…)

By Greg Palast
The Exit polls said he won, but the "official" tally took his victory away. His supporters found they were scrubbed off voter rolls. Violence and intimidation kept even more of his voters away from the polls. Hundreds of thousands of ballots supposedly showed no choice for president — like ballots with hanging chads.
And the officials in charge of this suspect election refused to re-count those votes in public. Everyone knew full well a fair count would certainly change (…)

A report from Lebanon’s south, ravaged by retaliatory Israeli strikes.
By Mitchell Prothero
Beirutis expected the worst when word came Wednesday that Hezbollah, the militant group based in south Lebanon, had killed eight Israeli soldiers near the border and seized two more. The region was already on edge, with the Israeli siege of Gaza in its 18th day following the Palestinian kidnapping of an Israel Defense Forces soldier. Everyone knew that Israeli retaliation would be severe. The only (…)

by John Spritzler
The right-wing radio talk show hosts make a big deal about the illegality of illegal immigration. They say it’s wrong to let illegal actions go unpunished and specifically it is wrong to let illegal immigrants stay in the United States. Deport them all, is their solution.
But why is it illegal for people to migrate across the U.S.-Mexican border in the first place? Why not make it legal, for anybody who wants to, to cross the border?
I have heard three main reasons (…)

Killing civilians and destructing basic structure have been a policy of the Israeli’s government
The escalation of violence in the middle east has been the result of the policy of the Israeli governments. These government have imprisoned more than ten thousands of Palestinians including some democratically elected members of the Palestinians parliament. While that government refuses to free any of them, it denies the action of some Palestinian groups who have kidnapped an Israeli soldier (…)

All health care professionals should be made aware of the humanitarian disaster occurring right now in the country of Lebanon.
As always civilians are paying the most serious consequences of decisions taken by politicians. This is cruel and injust.
The situation in Lebanon is dramatic:
the entire civilian infrastructure is destroyed, numerous innocent civilians are killed. The ordinary people of Lebanon are completely besieged from the air and the sea. No one can leave or enter the (…)