December 2011

Capitalism is the enemy of democracy

by News Sources 12.17.2011

David Kristjanson-Gural writes: The most significant accomplishment for Occupy Wall Street (OWS) to date is that the Occupiers have managed to poke a hole in the legitimacy of neoliberal capitalism and its central claim that unregulated markets provide opportunity and freedom. The Occupiers have accomplished this feat in a surprising way, peacefully, with home-made signs, [...]

Read the full article →

The desperate defiance that sparked the Arab Spring

by News Sources 12.17.2011

Larbi Sadiki writes: It was an act of self-immolation that would change the course of Arab political history. That is the significance of Mohamed Bouazizi one year on. It will be years before December 17, 2010 and the subsequent chain of events his act set off in Tunisia – and later on across the Arab [...]

Read the full article →

Ken Robinson – changing paradigms of learning

by News Sources 12.17.2011

Share

Read the full article →

Big Oil and Canada thwarted U.S. carbon standards

by News Sources 12.17.2011

Salon reports: When President Barack Obama decided in early November to delay a decision on TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline until after the next election, America’s environmental movement celebrated one of its biggest victories in recent memory. And no doubt the news came as a blow to Alberta’s tar sands industry, and to Canada’s oft-stated dream [...]

Read the full article →

Pavan Sukhdev: Put a value on nature!

by News Sources 12.17.2011

Share

Read the full article →

U.S. Senate passes ‘indefinite detention’ bill

by News Sources 12.17.2011

Glenn Greenwald writes: Condemnation of President Obama is intense, and growing, as a result of his announced intent to sign into law the indefinite detention bill embedded in the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). These denunciations come not only from the nation’s leading civil liberties and human rights groups, but also from the pro-Obama [...]

Read the full article →

Inside Story – 2014: A U.S. free Afghanistan?

by News Sources 12.17.2011

Share

Read the full article →

US-made tear gas becomes fatal ingredient of protests

by News Sources 12.17.2011

Joseph Dana writes: Residents of Nabi Saleh in the West Bank have been demonstrating, each week for the past two years, against the slow encroachment on their land by Israeli settlers. Gathering in the village centre on Friday afternoons, villagers along with Israeli and international activists attempt to march, under the watchful eye of soldiers, [...]

Read the full article →

Death toll rises from clashes in Cairo

by News Sources 12.17.2011

The New York Times reports: The death toll from renewed violence in Egypt’s capital rose overnight as clashes between Egyptian soldiers and protesters entered a second day on Saturday. According to media reports, soldiers swept into Tahrir Square here on Saturday, chasing protesters and beating them with sticks. Early Saturday, according to The Associated Press, [...]

Read the full article →

Iran says its delayed news of U.S. drone capture

by News Sources 12.17.2011

The Associated Press reports: Iran deliberately delayed its announcement that it had captured an American surveillance drone to test U.S. reaction, the country’s foreign minister said Saturday. Ali Akbar Salehi said Tehran finally went public with its possession of the RQ-170 Sentinel stealth drone to disprove contradictory statements from U.S. officials. Iran, which put the [...]

Read the full article →

How to occupy the world

by News Sources 12.16.2011

Jason Hickel writes: The leading tagline of the Occupy Wall Street movement reads: “Protest for World Revolution.” This is an ambitious claim, to be sure. And in most respects it seems to ring quite true: the movement has successfully taken root not only in cities and towns throughout the United States but also in major [...]

Read the full article →

Who cares about Israel?

by Paul Woodward 12.16.2011

There are two things that vex most American in equal degrees: the rise of anti-Semitism and the fate of Israel. These two issues preoccupy ordinary people across this country in the same way — which is to say, very little. Why would they? Jews are not a persecuted minority here — they seem to be [...]

Read the full article →

When the dying wish they were already dead

by Paul Woodward 12.16.2011

Christopher Hitchens died last night. The strange thing about death — especially the death of a public figure — is that it evokes in most onlookers the desire to revisit a life rather than view its conclusion. Hitchens’ obituaries will perpetuate this death-denying ritual, but thankfully he offered his readers an opportunity to bravely look [...]

Read the full article →

Gingrich on Iran: ‘we are going to replace their regime’ — bombing isn’t enough

by News Sources 12.16.2011

Share

Read the full article →

How the world can live with a near-nuclear Iran

by News Sources 12.16.2011

Mohammed Ayoob writes: It is time for world leaders to recognize the inevitability of Iran acquiring nuclear weapons capability, even if it remains untested, with Tehran following the policy and adopting the rhetoric of deliberate ambiguity. Moreover, the major powers that act as the self-appointed guardians of the current international nuclear order need to recognize [...]

Read the full article →

The scandal of the Alabama poor cut off from water

by News Sources 12.16.2011

BBC News reports: Banks stand to lose millions of dollars in debt repayments if the biggest municipal bankruptcy in American history is allowed to proceed. But the real victims of the financial collapse in the US state of Alabama’s most populous county are its poorest residents – forced to bathe in bottled water and use [...]

Read the full article →

Can Citizens United be rolled back?

by News Sources 12.16.2011

Andy Kroll reports: On Thursday evening, residents of 83 towns and cities throughout the country—places like Marietta, Georgia, and East Troy, Wisconsin, and Anchorage, Alaska—will make their way to the home of a friend or neighbor or outright stranger for a night of partying. But these aren’t holiday parties. They’re the ground-level rumblings of a [...]

Read the full article →

What happens when the economy stops growing — forever?

by News Sources 12.15.2011

Share

Read the full article →

IMF warns that world risks sliding into a 1930s-style slump

by News Sources 12.15.2011

The Guardian reports: The world risks sliding into a 1930s-style slump unless countries settle their differences and work together to tackle Europe’s deepening debt crisis, the head of the International Monetary Fund has warned. On a day that saw an escalation in the tit-for-tat trade battle between China and the United States and a deepening [...]

Read the full article →

How do you define American?

by News Sources 12.15.2011

Share

Read the full article →

Israeli military base attacked by Jewish extremists in West Bank

by News Sources 12.15.2011

The Guardian reports: A gang of 50 Jewish settlers and rightwing activists have broken into an army base near the Israeli settlement of Kedumim in the West bank, setting fire to tyres and hurling rocks at both Israeli soldiers and Palestinians. One settler forced open the door of a jeep carrying the Efraim Regional Brigade’s [...]

Read the full article →

Iran hijacked U.S. drone, says Iranian engineer

by News Sources 12.15.2011

Christian Science Monitor reports in an exclusive: Iran guided the CIA’s “lost” stealth drone to an intact landing inside hostile territory by exploiting a navigational weakness long-known to the US military, according to an Iranian engineer now working on the captured drone’s systems inside Iran. Iranian electronic warfare specialists were able to cut off communications [...]

Read the full article →

CIA drones quit one Pakistan site — but U.S. keeps access to other airbases

by News Sources 12.15.2011

The Bureau of Investigative Journalism reports: Despite its very public withdrawal from Shamsi airfield at the weekend, the United States continues to have access to a number of military airfields inside Pakistan – including at least one from which armed drones are able to operate, the Bureau understands. The first concrete indications have also emerged [...]

Read the full article →

Bradley Manning heads for trial; no one charged for murdered civilians

by News Sources 12.15.2011

Share

Read the full article →