May 27, 2011 :: J.E. Robertson :: No Comment Yet
An effort by the Catalan state police, the Mossos d’Esquadra, to remove protesters from the Plaça Catalunya, by use of force, has ended with at least 125 people reported injured, the demonstrators retaking the square, and the Mossos forced to retreat. Protests have now spread to other parts of the city, as students have reportedly closed la Avinguda Diagonal, one of the city’s main thoroughfares, “in solidarity with the protesters in Plaça Catalunya”.
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May 27, 2011 :: J.E. Robertson :: No Comment Yet
In Spain’s capital, Madrid, in the heart of the city, at the Puerta del Sol, from which major roads radiate out toward all corners of the country, thousands of protesters, of all ages and social classes, young and old, have set up camp, literally, in what is now a Europe-wide demand for economic democracy. The [...]
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May 21, 2011 :: staff :: Comments Off
Tens of thousands of youth protesters are occupying la Puerta del Sol, the central square in Madrid, the capital of Spain. They have been occupying the square for a week, and last night camped overnight, despite a new government ban. The protesters are calling themselves “los Indignados”, the indignant.
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May 20, 2011 :: The Editors :: Comments Off
Pres. Barack Obama upset many in Israel yesterday, when he called for a two-state solution based on the 1967 borders. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected the idea, saying it would not allow Israel to effectively defend itself, and conservative opponents of Obama are now actively trying to vilify him as having abandoned Israel. This [...]
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May 5, 2011 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
There is a simple response to the GOP hardliners who say bin Laden’s demise justifies waterboarding and other torture techniques used under the Bush administration, and that is: if it had worked, it would not have taken 10 years to locate bin Laden. What “led” the US intelligence community, and SEAL Team Six to bin Laden’s fortified compound was long-running, diligent intelligence work of the kind that is hampered and obstructed by irrational fits of violence, torture and vengeful behavior.
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May 3, 2011 :: staff :: Comments Off
Good evening. Tonight, I can report to the American people and to the world that the United States has conducted an operation that killed Osama bin Laden, the leader of al Qaeda, and a terrorist who’s responsible for the murder of thousands of innocent men, women, and children.
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May 2, 2011 :: staff :: Comments Off
Pakistan’s president Asif Ali Zardari, whose late wife Benazir Bhutto was assassinated by extremists shortly after returning to her homeland to seek the presidency, said he was not informed prior to the operation that it was taking place, but that his government, and all of Pakistan should celebrate Bin Laden’s demise. Bin Laden had repeatedly tried to kill Bhutto, and was suspected of plotting to assassinate Pres. Zardari.
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May 1, 2011 :: staff :: Comments Off
Tonight, the news is breaking across global television and online media that the president of the United States will be making a special televised address to announce that Osama bin Laden has been confirmed killed. NBC News’ Chuck Todd is reporting the news began to leak out after Pres. Obama began informing, by telephone, the key leaders in Congress, that he would be making this announcement.
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April 28, 2011 :: staff :: Comments Off
In his weekly address, President Obama laid out his plans to address rising gas prices over the short and the long term. While there is no silver bullet to bring down prices right away, there are a few things we can do. This week, the Attorney General launched a task force dedicated to rooting out fraud or manipulations in the oil markets. The President called for finally ending the $4 billion in taxpayer money that the oil and gas companies receive annually. And, we need to continue safe, responsible production of oil at home. But in the long term, we need to invest in clean, renewable energy. That is why the President strongly disagrees with a proposal in Congress that cuts our investments in clean energy by 70 percent.
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April 25, 2011 :: The Editors :: Comments Off
For days now, pro-democracy protesters have been calling Deraa “liberated territory”, and today, after two days of government forces massacring civilians in public demonstrations, the al-Assad regime has sent tanks to invade and to “retake” the city of Deraa. Sporadic eyewitness reports to the BBC suggest the streets are littered with bodies of the wounded [...]
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April 22, 2011 :: The Editors :: Comments Off
Syria’s authoritarian ruler Bashar al-Assad has lifted a notorious emergency law, after 50 years during which his family has used it to stamp out dissent and democratic process. It was the boldest and most significant concession to date, in the political response to ongoing protests in Syria, but it has not quelled the pro-democracy protests, [...]
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April 21, 2011 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
The al-Khalifa regime in Bahrain has seen its international reputation deteriorate from apparent friend of western nations and western values to violent police state using foreign mercenaries to kill its own people. No human rights lawyers were needed to bring about that shift; this was the flagrant, unapologetic and coordinated response of the regime to its people’s fairly moderate demand for political reform.
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April 12, 2011 :: staff :: Comments Off
After what now looks like significant foot-dragging, for fully one month, Japanese authorities have finally admitted the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant is undergoing a level 7 nuclear emergency, the worst possible. There is still an effort to slow-walk this news, with repeated claims the radiation release has not been as significant as Chernobyl, also a level 7, but the Fukushima disaster involves 6 reactors, with at least 4 considered to be at ongoing risk of meltdown.
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April 4, 2011 :: The Editors :: 3 Comments
Iman al-Obeidi, the Libyan woman who was abducted by Qadhafi agents while telling foreign journalists that she had been held captive and gang raped by Qadhafi’s military, says after several days in custody, she continues to suffer physical assault, repeated arrests, and threats, from Qadhafi’s regime. The Qadhafi regime has orchestrated a coordinated campaign of [...]
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March 27, 2011 :: The Editors :: 2 Comments
Today, Juan Cole published an open letter to the political left, asking them to understand the humanitarian urgency of the situation in Libya, and to balance their desire for an end to war and foreign interventions against the need to protect human life and ensure that a viable democracy movement is not put down through massive slaughter of thousands or tens of thousands of civilians. Cole is right. Though military action is never the best of all possible outcomes, it is sometimes the only way to protect innocent human life against plans of deliberate mass murder.
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March 27, 2011 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
Reports from Tokyo today have authorities telling residents water is now safe for infant consumption, even as reports from Fukushima show radiation levels may have surged to 10 million times the normal level. Readings taken 30 miles out to sea have found radiation levels in seawater at 1,850 times the normal level. More nations around the Pacific Ocean are expressing concern about the handling of the disaster.
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March 24, 2011 :: The Editors :: Comments Off
There has been a lot of controversy among members of Congress as to whether Pres. Obama “consulted” adequately with the Congress before intervening in the Libyan crisis. The controversy is mostly cynical politicking by opponents of Obama who were demanding Obama intervene, right up until he did. In fact, Pres. Obama sent notice to Congress, [...]
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March 23, 2011 :: J.E. Robertson :: 2 Comments
The royal family ruling Bahrain has taken a military approach to its people’s demand for more democracy. The royal family, increasingly desperate to hold onto power by any means necessary, first called in foreign mercenaries, then the Saudi army, which now effectively occupies the capital, Manama. Reports coming from Manama say doctors and demonstrators gave told the press that Bahraini and/or Saudi forces surrounded the city’s largest hospital to prevent people attacked by gunfire and teargas from getting treatment.
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March 22, 2011 :: The Editors :: Comments Off
In a stunning insult to the American people and to the world community, the national Republican party has adopted a new propaganda attack against Pres. Obama: they now argue Pres. Obama is too talented at doing too many things and that the American people cannot comprehend such a complex job description. Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, [...]
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March 19, 2011 :: staff :: Comments Off
Yesterday, there were reports of snipers taking up positions around peaceful, unarmed pro-democracy demonstrators, then firing into the crowd, inflicting fatal headshots and hitting other victims in the neck. At least one journalist was killed and another injured in the crackdown, and dozens of journalists have reportedly been targeted —detained, beaten, shot at— since the [...]
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March 19, 2011 :: staff :: One Comment
The United Nations Security Council voted unanimously this week to authorize the enforcement of a no-fly zone over Libya, and gave member nations the power to take “all necessary measures” to protect civilians. NATO and an alliance of Arab countries are now orchestrating airstrikes against Libyan military positions, to clear the ground for a secure [...]
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March 17, 2011 :: The Editors :: 3 Comments
The United Nations Security Council voted unanimously today —with five abstentions— to support the imposition of a no-fly zone over Libya, authorizing military action against Muammar Qadhafi, to halt his war against the people of his own country. Qadhafi and his sons have been waging a full-scale military assault against civilians and rebel forces supporting [...]
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March 17, 2011 :: The Editors :: Comments Off
The regime in Bahrain is now officially killing civilians in order to halt what is increasingly a demand for full democratic rights. At first, the democracy movement in Bahrain was not calling for the removal of the king or the al-Khalifa family. But once security forces began cracking down violently on peaceful demonstrators in central [...]
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March 17, 2011 :: J.E. Robertson :: 2 Comments
National Public Radio is a resource that belongs to the American people. It is not government controlled, has no editorial bias in terms of ideology or party, and is the nation’s most extensive network of committed professional journalists delivering reliable information to American citizens, via the radio. Federal funding is a commitment to enabling the American people to benefit from the founding principle that a free and independent press makes us freer and more resilient to the challenges a democracy faces.
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March 16, 2011 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
A report from the American Medical Association finds the US is not prepared to deal with the public health crisis that would ensue from a major nuclear accident. There is also evidence suggesting that aging nuclear plants are less stable and less secure than the public is led to believe. Indeed, radiation releases are surprisingly and disturbingly common.
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March 15, 2011 :: staff :: Comments Off
As the four troubled nuclear reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power complex continue to deteriorate, the news is breaking this evening that workers at Reactor #4 are being forced to abandon the site, due to the risk of extreme radiation contamination. The evacuation means that at least one of the failing reactors will not have any one in place to manage it; at this hour, it is not clear whether the entire Fukushima complex is being evacuated.
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March 15, 2011 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
The president’s proposed budget for 2012 includes $36 billion in loan guarantees for the development of new nuclear power plants. The United States has still not solved the problem of where to securely store nuclear waste material for the time frame necessary. In Japan, two nuclear reactors appaer to be in meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi plant. The $36 billion would be far more wisely spent developing a clean energy economy based on advanced solar and wind technology.
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March 15, 2011 :: The Editors :: Comments Off
Nuclear power plants, like the one at Fukushima Daiichi, contain 1,000 times more radioactivity to leak than the Hiroshima bomb. Nuclear scientists estimate 1,000,000 people would be killed or injured in a major accident, were one to occur at the San Onofre plant in southern California. But Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) on Monday compared the [...]
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March 15, 2011 :: staff :: 2 Comments
A fourth reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has now reportedly lost its cooling system and is on fire, while a third of the troubled reactors has suffered an explosion. The exclusion zone has been expanded to 19 miles, and international monitors now say the Fukushima nuclear emergency is officially the second worst [...]
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March 14, 2011 :: The Editors :: Comments Off
Bahrain’s government has asked for and accepted foreign intervention to help secure the nation against a spreading opposition movement. Pro-democracy demonstrators have said they will view any presence of foreign troops as an illegal foreign occupation. There are concerns the foreign forces might inflame sectarian tensions, as they are Saudi Sunni forces defining a minority [...]
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March 13, 2011 :: staff :: Comments Off
Just one day after Wisconsin governor Scott Walker signed a bill into law that strips public employees of collective bargaining rights, the largest crowd to date gathered around the state Capitol building in Madison. Authorities estimate between 85,000 and 100,000 people joined the protest, demanding the repeal of the law and the recall of all [...]
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March 13, 2011 :: staff :: Comments Off
Japanese authorities are reporting, just after 3:00 am EDT, that two of the reactor cores at the Fukushima nuclear plant may have begun meltdown. At least nine people are reported to have been exposed to dangerous levels of radiation. A 20km exclusion zone is being established, and authorities say they are evacuating an estimated 200,000 [...]
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March 12, 2011 :: staff :: Comments Off
Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) denounces the intent of Rep. Peter King’s (R-NY) “radicalization of American Muslims” hearings, which she says are a waste of time and counterproductive effort to promote religious and ethnic bias. At 5:10 into this video, Rep. Peter King is heard suddenly ordering Ms. Jackson Lee to end her statement at the very moment she decries the “lack of factual basis” for the hearings. King had earlier shouted down Rep. Jackson Lee when she suggested each member of the committee should be allowed to make a statement in support of or criticizing the nature and aim of the hearings.
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March 12, 2011 :: staff :: Comments Off
Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN), the first Muslim-American in the United States Congress, spoke to the Congressional hearing chaired by Rep. Peter King (R-NY), examining the question of the “radicalization of American Muslims”. He told the story of a young, Muslim-American man who gave his life to save others on 11 September 2001. Rep. Ellison’s testimony was emotional, and he fought back tears nearly throughout the statement, telling of the young man’s sacrifice.
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March 12, 2011 :: The Editors :: 3 Comments
Republican governors have unabashedly joined in their party’s national campaign to undermine the economic recovery and marginalize their people in a concerted effort to harm Pres. Obama and derail his re-election bid. In Florida, the new Tea Partyist governor has refused to accept any federal funding for a high-speed rail project that would have stimulated economic growth and job creation in his state, despite Florida being granted $2.4 billion out of the $2.6 billion needed, and the previous governor having explicitly requested the funds.
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March 12, 2011 :: staff :: Comments Off
The Fukushima nuclear plant contains 5 nuclear reactors, which combine to produce the world’s largest concentrated power generation. At least one of the reactors is reported to have radiation levels 1,000 times normal inside one of its control rooms. Today, RussiaToday is reporting that white smoke seen rising from the plant may be due to an explosion. Authorities have warned that some radioactive material may have seeped out into the environment already. There is an ongoing concern that the plant may be vulnerable to meltdown, as plant operators have not been able to resume cooling of nuclear fuel.
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March 12, 2011 :: staff :: Comments Off
Google yesterday launched a “person finder” for Japan, to help people looking for relatives and loved ones who may be lost in a communications outage or in physical danger, due to the earthquake and tsunami. Facebook also has a disaster relief service at facebook.com/DisasterRelief. There is also a surge in information on Twitter at hash-tags like #tsunami or #sendai or Fukushima.
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March 11, 2011 :: staff :: Comments Off
Two nuclear reactors in Fukushima, Japan, are now reported to be unable to cool the nuclear fuel in their cores, and radioactive materials may have seeped into the environment. The reactors reportedly suffered service interruption after the worst earthquake in Japanese history. The magnitude 8.9 quake unleashed a massive tsunami the pushed far inland at Sendai, northeast of Tokyo.
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March 10, 2011 :: staff :: Comments Off
Rachel Maddow reports on the Michigan governor’s legislation giving himself emergency powers, including the power to dissolve local governments, take over cities, unincorporate entire municipalities —the equivalent of erasing them from the political map— and remove elected officials, replacing them with his own unilaterally appointed substitutes.
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March 10, 2011 :: The Editors :: Comments Off
Last night, the Republican party is Wisconsin decided to shirk the law, ignore a direct warning from the Assembly minority leader that their actions were a flagrant violation of the law, ignore established process and pass a fiscal proposal as if it were not a fiscal provision. The Senate majority leader, responsible for staging and carrying out this maneuver, said openly that the ban on collective bargaining was intended to make it more difficult for Pres. Obama to win re-election.
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March 10, 2011 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
In Wisconsin last night, the Republican state Senate stripped public employees of nearly all collective bargaining rights in a hastily called vote, in a dubious parliamentary maneuver. They did not notify the public or the minority party of their actions with adequate time for debate, and in just 13 minutes, they erased 50 years of progress on labor rights in Wisconsin.
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March 10, 2011 :: The Editors :: Comments Off
The majority leader of the Wisconsin state Senate, Scott Fitzgerald, admitted today on FOX News that the radical budget plan he and his brother and Gov. Walker are trying to force on the people of Wisconsin is a deliberate strategy to cripple the Democratic party in 2012 and make it harder for Pres. Obama to win the state of Wisconsin.
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March 9, 2011 :: staff :: Comments Off
Republicans in the Wisconsin state Senate have voted to force through a bill banning collective bargaining for public employees in the state. The move is being described as a new parliamentary move, without precedent and possibly without any legal foundation. There are now accusations of clear ethics violations in the process used to force the measure through, and threats of legal action.
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March 9, 2011 :: staff :: One Comment
The governor of Michigan is trying to force through the legislature a bill that would establish emergency rule, LITERALLY. Gov. Snyder is seeking emergency powers that would enable him to 1) unilaterally declare a “financial emergency”, 2) disincorporate entire municipal governments, 3) dismiss elected officials with no replacement election to follow, 4) seize control of local civil services, 5) hand taxpayer money, services and POWERS to private, for-profit firms.
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March 3, 2011 :: staff :: Comments Off
Every wave on the ocean that has ever risen up and refused to lay back down has been dashed on the shore, but it is the very purpose of a wave to rise up, because once it rises up above the horizon it finally has the perspective to see that it’s not just a wave, that it’s a part of a mighty ocean. And the sharpest rock on the wildest shore can never break that ocean apart, they can never wear that ocean down, because it’s the ocean that shapes the shore.
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March 3, 2011 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
The United States of America is a nation of immigrants. It is a nation that has wrestled with vicious undercurrents of racism and xenophobia, and has emerged ever more democratic, generally trending toward a more perfect union representing the foundational ideals that were, in the 18th century, so far out of reach, but so necessary as core aspirations. And over time, it is a nation that has become richer, stronger and more democratic, by getting closer to those foundational ideals.
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March 3, 2011 :: Denver Lessing :: Comments Off
FOX News has begun to escalate what appears to be a partisan campaign against the people of the state of Wisconsin. The network was caught yesterday using fake footage, stock footage of another protest, in Florida, at another time, where there were physical scuffles going on, while reporting that this was taking place in Wisconsin. [...]
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March 2, 2011 :: staff :: 3 Comments
After the governor of Wisconsin first ordered the state capitol closed to the public, then ejected protesters, then refused to ease restrictions on access, a judge has ordered the closure reversed, requiring that the state government allow full public access to the building during business hours. The governor’s officials responded that by allowing public officials, staff and scheduled visitors to enter, they were already in compliance.
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February 28, 2011 :: staff :: Comments Off
There is a myth that is often put forth as evidence that conservatives are unserious about democracy, which is that they favor rapacious capitalist behemoths. Many do, especially those for whom conservatism means capitalism. But most conservatives are ordinary people who want the little guy to be free of the imposing will of major power interests. It confuses matters to assert that all conservatives are interested in promoting big business interests.
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February 27, 2011 :: The Editors :: 2 Comments
Pres. Barack Obama’s ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, yesterday said to the UN that “When a leader’s only means of staying in power is to use mass violence against [his] people, he has lost the legitimacy to rule.” The Obama administration has now taken the position that Muammar Qadhafi can no longer be recognized as leader of Libya, and an interim government should be instituted to oversee a transition to democracy.
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