Tom Hayden: The policy resolution demands a “swift withdrawal” of troops and contractors starting with a “significant and sizeable reduction [of troops] no later than July 2011.
When “Good” Dictators Go Bad
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Norman Solomon: And so, the secretary of state condemns awful Iran, invoking “our sense of human dignity, the rights that flow from it and the principles that ground it.” But don’t hold your breath for any such condemnation of, say, Saudi Arabia — surely an “awful” government that “routinely violates the rights of its people.”
Not So Fast! Haiti Election Results Still in Limbo as Official Says She Did Not Sign On
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Georgianne Nienaber: Despite reports to the contrary, Haiti’s electoral council has not approved a runoff election between candidates Michel Martelly and Mirlande Manigat.
LGBT Murders in Uganda and “Corrective Rape” in South Africa Buried in Mid East News Cycle
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Georgianne Nienaber: The facts surrounding Kato’s murder are straightforward, but there are devious machinations by so-called American “Christian groups” that have led to this inevitable tragedy, and it is imperative that the influence of evangelicals in Africa result in accountability.
Prepping Minds for War Against China
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Shamus Cooke: The real problem that the U.S. government has with China is twofold: China’s growth is pushing aside U.S. influence/power all over the world, which has negative influence on the profits of U.S. corporations, which are losing contracts to Chinese companies.
How Do You Get to Be a Delegate?
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It’s happening again! I’m getting a slew of emails from friends because they don’t have a clue who they should vote for in the upcoming California Democratic Party Delegate election. Like the judicial elections, the average voter is either completely clueless or is only vaguely aware of the delegate process. Most voters know very little about the candidates and still more don’t know there is an election on Jan 8 and Jan 9.
The Incredible Shrinking Women
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Tina Dupuy: Here’s the thing about women candidates: they are more interesting to the press than their male counterparts. The media just likes them more. There’s an obsession with female candidates’ gaffes.
Bill Clinton at the Plate
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Brent Budowsky: The 2010 elections are in the ninth inning. There are two outs. The Democrats are down by two runs. There are two runners on base. The Babe is stepping to the plate, wielding the big bat, ready to take the big swing.
Republicans Plan McCarthyite Persecutions
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Brent Budowsky: Make no mistake, the party of Richard Nixon and Joe McCarthy is planning a new era of Nixonian and McCarthyite abuses to repeat the politics of persecution it attempted against the Clintons when Republicans had control of Congress.
Something’s Wrong Somewhere: Pimps, Whores and the Glitterati Who Game The Global Empire
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Gary Corseri: Moscow is choking, Pakistan is drowning, Gaza is withering, war clouds gather over Iran, Venezuela, and Korea…dead zones in the oceans…but, rejoice! Chelsea has married her investment banker!
Al and Tipper’s Separation as an Iconic Baby Boom Act
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Gil Troy: No one other than the Gores knows exactly what happened—and they, too, may not be completely sure. Even marriages free of public scrutiny are icebergs, with the true foundations submerged: some rock solid, some fragile. Still, as national role models who frequently made their private lives public, their private trauma has public repercussions.
Why More Immigrants Is an Answer to the Coming Boomer Entitlement Mess
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Robert Reich: Sixty years later, we boomers have a lot to be worried about because most of us plan to retire in a few years and Social Security and Medicare are on the way to going bust. I should know because I used to be a trustee of the Social Security and Medicare trust funds. Those of you who are younger than we early boomers have even more to be worried about because if those funds go bust they won’t be there when you’re ready to retire.
Haiti: Eight Weeks After the Quake and Words Fail
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Georgianne Nienaber: So, the writer does what writers do and steps back, walking alone and searching for vowels and consonants that might describe what is unseen and impossible to understand. Then something happens that challenges the morality and duty of the writer. There is something on the ground that does not fit the pattern of stones and vegetation. A pelvis attached to a spinal column is lying in the open. Pieces of ribs, a wrist and a forearm are nearby. The writer knows it is human but wants it to be something else. It is familiar and something she has seen before.
Congolese Groups Demand Ouster of Abusive Army Commander
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Georgiianne Nienaber: The four-page formal complaint describes a compendium of horrific abuses – including massacres of civilians, summary executions, rape, mutilations of women, the dumping of bodies into latrines, and the recruitment of children – all committed by troops under Zimurinda’s command from 2007 to the present.
Congo Descending into Third Circle of Hell
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Georgianne Nienaber: What’s the rape and torture and burning alive of many thousands of women and children got to do with anything? What has JUSTICE got to do with anything, for God’s sake? Kabila wants “peace,” after all. A stray bullet might mar the finish on one of his bikes.
Paging Dr. Dean: Please Save the Democrats from Themselves
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Paul Hogarth: Now, the Democrats have managed to fumble Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat – losing to a right-wing Republican who once posed nude for Cosmopolitan. Evidence shows that Martha Coakley’s numbers went down after the Senate passed the health care bill. Shouldn’t the Party leaders listen to Howard Dean? At least, they owe him an apology.
Not Granting Haitian Immigrants Temporary Protection Status After Earthquake Would Be “Not Only Immoral, But Irresponsible”
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Andrea Christina Nill: Continuing to deport thousands of Haitian immigrants back to their ravaged home country rather than letting them stay in the U.S. to help their families in Haiti get back on their feet is inconsistent with the promises the Obama administration has already made to the people of Haiti.
Congolese Women and Girls Suffering the Insufferable
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Emily Spence and Brian McAfee: Heavily armed militias are trying to increase the very same kinds of turmoil that charitable groups are striving to remedy. They are doing so in order to gain control of four main minerals: tin, tantalum, tungsten, and gold that garner an estimated $180 million in revenues each year.
Congo: New Year, New Ops, Same Questions, Same Fears
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Georgianne Nienaber: The notoriously failed Kimia II operation in eastern Congo has ended today, December 31. Soundly and forcefully criticized by Human Rights groups for the devastation it wrought on civilian populations, it will be replaced sometime in January with a new mission, dubbed OperationAmani Leo, sources say.
Could a Hillary Clinton Avatar Save Congo?
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Georgianne Nienaber: Surprisingly, to some, the bad guys list also includes scientists, conservationists, non-governmental organizations, doctors, lawyers, public relations professionals and just about anyone who stands to make a buck off of the suffering. As one local Congolese activist told me, “rape is big business in Congo these days.”
HRW Report on Congo: Fetuses Ripped From Wombs and Children Burned
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“Continued killing and rape by all sides in eastern Congo shows that the UN Security Council needs a new approach to protect civilians,” said Anneke Van Woudenberg, senior researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The Security Council should send a group of experts to Congo to kick-start a serious civilian protection plan.”
Obama Becoming Clinton I Feared
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The American people who voted for “change” did not merely seek a return to the Nineties – or else they would have nominated Hillary Clinton. Obama stood to become the most progressive President in over 40 years, and yet his Administration has little to show for it.
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