CommonDreams Views
Moral Leadership and the Myth of 'Centrist' Thinking
If you have not read Drew Westen's outstanding piece, "What Created the Populist Explosion and How Democrats Can Avoid the Shrapnel in November", on the Huffington Post, Alternet, and other venues, read it immediately. Westen states as eloquently and forcefully as anyone what he, I, and other progressives have been saying from the beginning of the Obama administration. I agree fully with everything he says. But ...
Unseizing Gaza
In an interview with National Public Radio aired on August 30, 2010, Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon said that the three-year blockade on most foodstuffs and other materials was "a mistake" and that "denying different items or products into Gaza was not effective."
Flying the Flag, Faking the News
Edward Bernays, the American nephew of Sigmund Freud, is said to have invented modern propaganda. During the First World War, he was one of a group of influential liberals who mounted a secret government campaign to persuade reluctant Americans to send an army to the bloodbath in Europe.
Top 10 Reasons for Higher Taxes on the Top 1%
Funding for our country's children is being cut, but we
allow a hedge fund manager to make enough money to pay the salaries of
every public school teacher in New York City. Most of his earnings are
taxed at a rate less than that of his secretary.
We haven't been able to do anything about it because the cry of
'socialism' from the top generates fear in the minds of average
Americans. It's a meaningless cry. Here are ten reasons why the
wealthiest 10% of us, and especially the richest 1%, should be paying
higher taxes.
Buddhism, Peace, and Ecology
There is something extraordinarily child-like about the 84-year-old Zen Buddhist master Thich Nhat Hanh.
Can You Say, Fascism? The Political Consequences of Stagnation
My apologies to T. S. Eliot, but September, not April, is the cruelest month. Before 9/11/2001, there was 9/11/1973, when Gen. Pinochet toppled the Allende government in Chile and ushered in a 17-year reign of terror. More recently, on 9/15/2008, Lehman Brothers went bust and torpedoed the global economy, turning what had been a Wall Street crisis into a near-death experience for the global financial system.
Five Ways You Can Help Pakistan (and the Rest of Us)
As the world comes to terms with the mind-boggling scale of the tragedy in Pakistan, many Americans are asking what we can do to aid the flood victims.
Eve Ensler: Bald, Brave and Beautiful
Bald, brave and beautiful: Those words can't begin to capture the remarkable Eve Ensler. She sat down with me last week, in the midst of her battle with uterine cancer, to talk about New Orleans and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Eve, the author of the hit play "The Vagina Monologues" and the creator of V-Day, a global activist movement to stop violence against women and girls, told me how "cancer has been a huge gift."
Hurricane Earl... and Floating Nuclear Power Plants
It was supposed to happen off the U.S. East Coast and was scuttled because of skyrocketing costs, public opposition and a lack of need. But the concept of floating nuclear power plants is back. Russia, copying the U.S. plan, recently launched the first of what it says will be many floating nuclear plants that it will moor off its coastline and sell to nations around the world.
Fight Tea Partiers with Fresh Voters
Candidates have been in their districts, making nice to likely mid-term voters. They're more scarce than general election voters, and typically a more polarized bunch. What if there were more of them and more low-income people, particularly women, were in the mix?
The (Anti-War) Surge Did Work
Just Don't Do It: NIKE Digs Coal, Disrespects Coal Miners
"If we are to remain leaders in the green economy, then we have to be relentless in our pursuit of clean energy. We have to constantly evaluate all aspects of our energy footprint. Find opportunities to collaborate and partner with other companies and organizations.
Weaning the World Off Oil
Ten days ago I received a letter from Cairn Energy, the British company at the centre of Greenpeace's current direct action in the Arctic.
Iraq/Afghanistan: A Promise Kept, A Promise Deferred
President Obama wants credit for keeping his promise to end the war in Iraq. Some credit is due: the President reaffirmed his commitment to withdraw all U.S. troops from Iraq by the end of 2011, as required by the agreement between the U.S. and Iraq. But only partial credit is due, because the war-ending task is very far from complete.
What Israel's "Separation Wall" Has Done
Israel began constructing the wall in June 2002 following its invasion of cities in the West Bank, which it dubbed "Operation Defensive Shield." In retrospect, the invasion appears to have been a prelude to the construction of the wall and no one recognized the significance of the invasion's code name at the time.
A Middle East Peace That Wreaks Havoc
What an irony that the Palestinians' arch-enemy, Israel, should also be their saviour. There is a real danger that the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks due to starton September 2 in Washington could yield a botched deal that falls far short of the needs of international law or elemental justice, and sets back the cause of Palestine for decades, if not for ever.
Billions for Acquisitions, Nothing for US Workers
On August 30th, NBR did just that.
In her setup to this fascinating little segment, NBR host Susie Gharib opened with the words: “Well, American companies are sitting on a pile of cash. But they're not using it for hiring. They are using the money for deal-making.”
A Speech for Endless War
Hours later, the New York Times front page offered a credulous gloss for the end of "the seven-year American combat mission in Iraq." The first sentence of the coverage described the speech as saying "that it is now time to turn to pressing problems at home." The story went on to assert that Obama "used the moment to emphasize that he sees his primary job as addressing the weak economy and other domestic issues -- and to make clear that he intends to begin di
The Lomborg Deception: About Yesterday’s Front-Page Story in the Guardian
Howard Friel's most recent book is The Lomborg Deception: Setting the Record Straigh about Global Warming (Yale University Press, 2010) Yesterday, London's Guardian newspaper, an important paper with some of the West's best journalists, including Johann Hari, Suzanne Goldenberg, George Monbiot, and Chris McGreal, printed a front-page feature read more
The Awful Price for Teaching Less than We Know
Watching Glenn Beck's performance Saturday at his "Restoring Honor" rally in Washington, DC, I thought of the novelist Sinclair Lewis' Elmer Gantry, the charlatan evangelist who seduces most of those around him with his hearty backslapping and false piety.
