Jim Miles

Overview

Robert Kagan is a difficult subject to analyze. At times his writing seems to be very honest and directly critical of U.S. intentions as well as being clearly honest about the sometimes “dangerous nation” aspect of its history and foreign policy. Underlying it all however is his own patriotic blindness that ends up always supporting U.S. exceptionalism and uniqueness, always expressing the egocentric viewpoint that the U.S. is the indispensable nation. The U.S. is not indispensable.

Nor is it a bastion of “democratic capitalism” that is the only way forward from here, here being a point in renewed history – according to Kagan – in which there are either “democrats” or “autocrats.” Kagan does not see in shades of gray, countries and politicians are either one or the other. His arguments, while seemingly coherent at certain points tend to dissolve into self-contradiction, the main contradiction being the solid criticism that “what you do speaks so loud I can’t hear what you say.” For all that Kagan tries to present as the positives of the U.S., of the underlying good intentions of the U.S. - at the same time recognizing its sometimes hard handed methods of interfering in other countries - he really does not understand that perceptions built on those hard handed actions over-ride all the rhetoric and jingoism about the greatness and indispensability of the U.S. as the world’s guide to a better world.

Full story »

Robert B. Reich

As the banking system collapses, politicians and journalists are ignoring one of the main causes of the crisis: massive inequality.

With the collapse of the banking system, politicians and journalists are looking back at all the warning signs they missed: the sudden popularity of sub-prime loans, the rise of securitized debt instruments, the abject failure of credit-rating agencies. But perhaps instead of proximate causes, we should have paid attention to a much more basic red flag: inequality.

Full story »

Mickey Z.

It’s early November. I’m checking my mail when I decide to stand in front of my apartment building for a little air: Astoria, Queens, New York City, USA air.

I notice five sea gulls flying overhead—north to south—well above the buildings, asphalt, and internal combustion engines. No more than a few seconds later, another eight gulls pass so I decide to count. Why not? In no time, I’m over 50.

Full story »

Andrew Hughes

As 2008 comes to an end after a brain curdling descent in to an economic abyss, what is on the to-do list for 2009? Will the same mistakes that were made to try and ease the impact of the crisis be repeated in 2008? All indications are that addressing the root problems is still not on the agenda and the predilection for Keynesian stimuli will only exacerbate the fallout from a fundamentally unwinnable war. Unwinnable in the sense that the definition of victory is the restoration of a failed Economic model.

The injection of $3 Trillion in to Commercial paper, mortgage, banking and auto markets has not even touched the onslaught of Economic Armageddon. The credit, so earnestly hoped for, never materialized as recapitalization outbid exposure in the financial world. There is a long, long way to go before the deleveraging Genie is put back in the bottle, and only then after a carnage never seen before in the history of the free market.

Full story »

Dr. Saeb Shaath

WHILE Gaza defies Zionist-imposed death, in simple direct words, the ‘civilised’ world praises the killers. The EU is rewarding the Zionist vultures by upgrading its relationship with the Zionist entity (through a proposal by the European Union Commission and Council for the draft recommendation to conclude a Protocol to the EU-Israel Association Agreement and on the general principles governing the State of Israel's participation in Community programs). This means that more European taxpayers’ money will be made available to pour into the only entity on earth that is refusing to comply with UN and Security Council resolutions. Violating most international laws and basic Human Rights, a very advanced and sophisticated Israeli Army is attacking civilians and aiding settlers to attack unarmed defenceless Palestinians.

Last Wednesday, the European Parliament (EP) postponed a vote that could largely upgrade EU-Israeli relations. The vote, originally scheduled for Thursday, December 11, was postponed to another date yet to be determined, the majority of European Parliamentarians ruled on Wednesday.

Full story »

Najwa Sheikh

Home for all of us is the place where we can find peace, comfort, and love, it is where we find passion, and warmness, no matter where we are or who we are it is the place where we wanted to hide and seek peace.

Home is the place where every stone, every corner recalls a memory of a certain event during your childhood; it is where the signs of how tall you became are still carved on the door.

For me as a third generation Palestinian refugee, I missed experiencing all these feelings, the camp where I have been raised is just a temporary residence, a place that I and my family before me were forced to live in after they lost their homeland, the camp was never to be my home.

Full story »

Gabriele Zamparini

When Muntazer al-Zaidi, an Iraqi journalist, shouted, "It is the farewell kiss, you dog" to Bush and threw him his shoes during a news conference in Baghdad, the curtain of hypocrisy fell and the ugly emperor stood naked in front of the world.

Those shoes however were not aimed only to a man who should be - by his own standards - hanged, together with his entire junta of mass murderers; the Iraqi hero hit to the face all those responsible for the Iraq genocide and its ongoing denial; an endless army of politicians, diplomats, generals, businessmen, journalists, intellectuals and pimps who've helped to carry out the crime of the century. Shoes for all!

Full story »

Edgar J. Steele

"The future ain't what it used to be."
--- Yogi Berra

$700 billion to bail out the financial industry! Actually, over $800 billion once they got done "sweetening" the bailout package. That is what the US Congress voted to allow Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson to hand over to his Wall Street buddies, with virtually no oversight. And that was just for openers.

The Federal Reserve and the US Treasury on their own have dispensed hundreds of billions more to financial firms. What's more, the Federal Reserve, which is a private company owned by foreign bankers, refuses to identify to whom it has given the US taxpayer dollars that it has loaned into existence out of thin air (created from debt that will hobble our children and their children).

Full story »

Eric Walberg

The disastrous Bush years have left a legacy of war and financial collapse. They have also brought North America to a political impasse, bemoans Eric Walberg

The really extraordinary political event in North American politics as 2008 came to a close was not the albeit remarkable election of the first US black president, but the collapse of Canada’s parliamentary system. Canada’s first-past-the-post electoral system allowed the Conservatives to form a minority government during the past three years with about 1/3 of the popular vote, supported by the Canadian equivalent of the Bushites (hardcore rightwingers -- Bible-thumpers and the very rich).

Full story »

Mary Shaw

It's that time of year again. Outside the shopping malls and supermarkets we encounter the bell-ringing representatives of the Salvation Army, dressed in paramilitary uniform, with their big red kettles, begging for a share of our holiday dollars.

And, as I do every year, I will ignore them.

Not because I am selfish or stingy. In the past few weeks, I have contributed a healthy sum in end-of-year donations to the non-profit agencies that I choose to support.

But I choose not to support the Salvation Army. My reasons? Read on.

Full story »