contributions

by William Fisher
Following an appeals court’s divided decision upholding the constitutionality of the Military Commissions Act, opponents of the measure are racing the clock to file an appeal to the US Supreme Court and have it heard during the court’s current term.
A spokesperson for the Center for Constitutional Rights, the New York-based legal advocacy group that brought the original suit, told IPS it expected the appeal to be filed within the next two weeks and heard in the spring. (…)

by Brian McAfee
As Hernani Pastolero was sipping his cup of coffee in front of his home early last Monday morning he was shot twice in the head by an unidentified gunman. Pastolero was the editor of the Lightning Courier, a weekly newspaper in the southern Philippines. He was the 50th journalist killed since Gloria Macapagal Arroyo became president in 2001 and the first in 2007. This number is part of the greater number of leftists that have been murdered in the same time period, now (…)

A recent survey by University of Maryland’s prestigious Program on International Public Attitudes, shows that only 46 percent of Americans think that "bombing and other attacks intentionally aimed at civilians" are "never justified," while 24 percent believe these attacks are "often or sometimes justified." Reported (here )
Nearly all Muslims including children know that majority of the acts of terror, especially 9/11, East Africa, London, Madrid, Bali, Bombay and Jakarta are not the work (…)

by Wayne Besen
Grey’s Anatomy star Isaiah Washington called a co-star a faggot and ended up in rehab, while former basketball star Tim Haraway said he hated homosexuals and now his career as an ex-jock pitchman is on a cold slab. This will be remembered as the year the F-word became the new N-word and homophobic comments were no longer considered acceptable in polite company. To be sure, America has not endorsed homosexuality, but the new rules do mean celebrities will lose endorsements if (…)

Many wonder why so many U.S.soldiers continue to tell the Press that "we must continue fighting as long as it takes, and we’ll eventually win".
The answer has a lot to do with what we "are" as citizens of the US of A.
I think there are three distinct reasons why it’s easy to persuade US troops to continue "the good fight" in Iraq.
1. Xenophobia. Many ignorant (read: ill educated) young Americans have a basic distrust,even hatred, of anyone who isn’t Christian, has dark skin, wears (…)

Feb. 23 - Twelve people have been arrested and charged in Sydney during protests after U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney arrived for talks on Iraq and the war on terrorism.
Three women and a man were charged today after demonstrating outside the Shangri-La Hotel in downtown Sydney today as Cheney addressed the Australian-American Leadership Dialogue, according to a New South Wales state police statement. About 50 protesters gathered outside the hotel.
Seven men, aged 16 to 53, and a (…)

Synopsis: US writer Daniel Patrick Welch argues that it is not just the neocon crazies in Washington, but ingrained aspects of US culture and politcs, most of all Americans’ unshakable belief in our own nobility, that drives us toward the newest chapter in global war.
by Daniel Patrick Welch http://danielpwelch.com translators please visit website to volunteer
I often have the dubious pleasure of listening to smug liberals whining about their "discomfort" with what they refer to as (…)

Information and the application of it in personal and social contexts seems to be the key point to change in the social context especially if we consider that cyclic rise of fascit-lie RIGHT TURN ONLY religious support for war and prayer of appocolyptic endings. If one PRAYS or performs some other act that is not a communication that impacts the consciousness of others affected in the social interaction matrix - how is change to be manifested? Change comes when new information is acted on in (…)

“People cannot stand too much reality.” - Carl Jung
Baltimore, MD - James Howard Kunstler, controversial author and civic gadfly, was the keynote Humanities Symposium speaker on Feb. 20, 2007, at Loyola College. For years, he has been raising unholy cain about the decline of our major cities, and the strip-mallization of our once-unspoiled countrysides. He has also played the role of Cassandra, in warning about the potential harmful effects to the economy from the national addiction to (…)

Old Europe and the Mullah
February 22, 2007
by Philip Giraldi
There has been a noticeable shift in the rhetoric emanating from the proponents of war with Iran, almost certainly due to the perception that armed conflict with Tehran will not be as easy a sell as was Iraq. The shift is most marked within the Bush Administration itself, where daily attacks on Iran that started with the State of the Union message on January 10th have largely disappeared and where both civilian and military (…)