contributions

Chinese Official: Don’t Buy U.S. Bonds
Tue Apr 4, 6:00 AM ET
HONG KONG - China should stop buying U.S. Treasuries and take steps to reduce its holdings in those bonds, a Hong Kong newspaper on Tuesday quoted a high-ranking Chinese official as saying.
China should instead increase imports from the United States, said Cheng Siwei, a vice chairman of China’s parliament, the National People’s Congress, the Wen Wei Po reported.
Currency traders said the report caused some players to sell (…)

Once again the empty suits filled , pockets filled with loot, have decided to "repackage" the CBS Evening News.... They’ve hired Today show co- host Katie Couric from NBC.... The Today show co-host goes into evening and then ,no doubt, into that good night of broadcast oblivion , a complete flop.....They will buy a couple of months of improved ratings . The novelty will wear off and the BS-ers will have to buy off her enourmous contract ..... Katie probably hopes this happens..... (…)

by Angelique Chrisafis in Paris
Police fought running battles with rioters in central Paris last night as youths attacked officers with bangers, bottles and concrete at the end of a mass demonstration against a youth employment law that has caused a political crisis for Jacques Chirac’s ruling party.
Trade unionists and student leaders said up to three million people took to the streets across France yesterday - the second time in eight days that the country has seen its biggest street (…)

Although Americans stuck with the president through huge tax cuts for the rich, a destructive environmental policy, an economic policy that enriches corporations and lowers wages, and his attempts to dismantle Social Security, it took Hurricane Katrina before his ineptitude became an embarrassment.
As Americans wake up to the reality of George W. Bush, his popularity plummets. Even stalwart conservatives are calling the president incompetent and out of touch.
In the face of poor (…)

That anyone would even begin to think that Cheney would come out of the impeachment process uncharged and unscathed is mistaken, sorely mistaken. That one would think to impeach Bush without Cheney, and Rumsfeld and the others, is short-sighted... maybe blind. We’d get Hastert as president, but we’re waiting at the door for him, too, to impeach him for his taking bribes. Even if Hastert were to become president, no Republican would be Speaker of the House because they have all lost their (…)

My heart received a modest lift when I spotted your March 17 article on Page A5 noting that consensus among Americans is growing that the President deserves congressional censure for his clandestine acts of domestic espionage.
That would be a very gratifying development, but hardly the most appropriate denouement.
My heart would be lifted much higher were I to read that Congress had finally decided to do its duty and impeach the President on the charge of violating the federal statutes, (…)

U.S. policy now aims to isolate Venezuela’s Chavez
Sunday, March 12, 2006 By Paul Richter, Los Angeles Times
WASHINGTON — The Bush administration is stepping up efforts to counter the attempts of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to build a unified opposition to U.S. influence in a region that is drifting politically to the left.
U.S. diplomats have sought in recent years to mute their conflicts with Chavez, fearing that a war of words with the flamboyant populist could raise his (…)

Throwing Stones at Venezuela
By Onnesha Roychoudhuri, AlterNet Posted on April 1, 2006, Printed on April 5, 2006 http://www.alternet.org/story/34270/
It’s certainly no surprise. Even over a year ago, journalists were remarking at the "left turn" that so many Latin American countries were making. Of late, however, we only hear about Hugo Chavez and Venezuela. The South American country has taken the place of Cuba as the new whipping boy of alternative political models. But the targeted (…)

A few weeks ago two scholars published a study that might have languished in the obscurity of academia.
But the paper was about the impact that the "Israel Lobby" — which the authors characterized as a loose confederation of like-minded individuals and groups — has on U.S. policy in the Middle East. So, predictably, it set off a nice little firestorm with accusations of anti-Semitism flying around our most hallowed Ivy League colleges and members of Congress discussing how to respond to (…)

Final results from 32 Wisconsin towns who voted on a non-binding resolution calling for immediate US troop withdrawal from Iraq are as follows : # of Communities in favour of immediate withdrawal 24 .... # of communities opposed to withdrawal 8 ....... # of Voters in favour of immediate troop withdrawal 40,043 ( 61%) ..... # of voters opposed to immediate troop withdrawal 25,641 (39%) ....... The chattering classes have attempted to marginalise the PEACE NOW movement as the (…)