The highly controversial $39 billion proposed merger of the second and fourth-largest wireless data companies in the United States is teetering on the precipice of failure. While consumer advocates are cheering the news, many warn that the financial enormity of the deal and the deep political connections involved mean it is nowhere close to dead. [...]
NIGHT OF TERRORISM IN THE WAR ON TERRORISM. (IPS News) Rebecca Murray describes from the view of civilians in Hakimabad in eastern Afghanistan one of the innumerable night-time raids of International Security Assistance Forces, engaged in their continuing the task of routing out Taliban presence in country. On the mere suspicion of their involvement with [...]
THE “ARAB SPRING” OF 2011: NOTHING NEW TO SEE HERE. Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya, who spent harrowing days of reporting from Libya during the NATO siege of Tripoli, writes now of the “geo-political chessboard” being prepared in “revolts” in Arab countries like Libya, Tunisia and Egypt. He sees these events as but a continuation of a [...]
CRISIS IN PAKISTAN: “THEY DEMONSTRATE COMPLETE DISREGARD FOR INTERNATIONAL LAW AND HUMAN LIFE, AND ARE IN STARK VIOLATION OF PAKISTANI SOVEREIGNTY.” The already-crumbling relationship between the United States government and Pakistan was dealt a new blow over the weekend when 25 Pakistani soldiers were killed in an air strike launched by US forces. It was [...]
WILL “FREEDOM RIDES” WORK AS EFFECTIVELY FOR PALESTINIANS IN 2011 AS THEY DID FOR AMERICAN CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVISTS IN THE 1960s? Last week 6 Palestinians were arrested for boarding a “settlers only” bus from the West Bank to Jerusalem, a trip illegal under Israel’s apartheid transportation law. While this act is praised as an adaptation [...]
EGYPT: DING, DONG THE WICKED WITCH IS DEAD!—-WELL NOT QUITE. Last February there were huge celebrations in the streets of Cairo after mass protests resulted in power being transferred from Hosni Mubarak to the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF). Now demonstrators have taken to the street again to protest the failure of SCAF [...]
“THE PROBLEM IS NOT THAT PEOPLE LIKE WARREN BUFFETT PAY AT A 17 PERCENT RATE, IT’S THAT THEY CAN USE COMPLEX TRANSACTIONS NOT AVAILABLE TO MOST AMERICANS TO GET CASH FROM THEIR APPRECIATED STOCK WITHOUT PAYING ANY TAXES AT ALL.“ That America’s wealthiest taxpayers enjoy their lowest tax rates in decades is only a fraction [...]
JFK ASSASSINATION: ON 48TH ANNIVERSARY, NEW YORK TIMES DEGRADES CONSPIRACY THEORY INTO A “CAUTIONARY TALE.” Josiah Thompson, who “wrote the book” on the mysterious “umbrella man” at the scene of JFK’s murder 11/22/63, is interviewed by film-maker Errol Morris, whose “op-doc” video is reproduced in today’s Times. In a perpetual style of ridicule of conspiracy [...]
Despite widespread public frustration and an approval rating measured in some polls as low as the single-digits, Congress is preparing for failure in its mandated bid to make a dent in the growing deficit by finding $1.2 trillion in cuts or new revenue. Mandated cuts now target defense spending, but lobbyists and their allies on [...]
GUNS AND BUTTER: WHAT IS THE BEST WAY TO STIMULATE A LAGGING ECONOMY? (Foreign Policy in Focus) Mark Engler takes on this question, reviewing the works of such “military Keynesians” as Michal Kalecki who argue that military expenditures are the most effective way, and such skeptics as Seymour Melman who assert that, morally and practically, [...]
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