(By Chase Madar via Tomdispatch) We Americans have funny notions about foreign aid. Recent polls show that, on average, we believe 28% of the federal budget is eaten up by it, and that, in a time of austerity, this gigantic bite of the budget should be cut back to 10%. In actual fact, barely 1% […]
Archives for February 2014
20 Banks Funding most Dirty Coal Mining, Climate Disruption, Worldwide
(By Michael Winship) Turning Up Heat on Banks Funding Fossil Fuels (via Moyers & Company) As environmental writer and activist Bill McKibben tells Bill Moyers on this week’s Moyers & Company about the student movement for colleges and universities to divest themselves of stock from companies that produce or burn oil, gas and coal, The… […]
Top 10 Reasons Rand Paul’s Lewinsky Gambit Can’t Obscure GOP War on Women
(By Juan Cole) Sen. Rand Paul, in preparation for his run at the presidency in 2016, has been attempting to deflect the GOP disadvantage with women by bringing up the Bill Clinton/ Monica Lewinsky scandal. It is a desperate ploy and, like many of Paul’s initiatives, quirky and a little bit creepy at the same […]
In midst of Alleged Peace Talks, Israel Announces Hundreds of new Squatter Homes in Palestinian East Jerusalem
(via AFP) Israel approves 550 Jerusalem settler homes (via AFP) Israel expedited Wednesday plans for more than 550 new settler homes in east Jerusalem, in a move exacerbating tensions between Israel and the Palestinians as they hold US-backed peace talks. The city council said it had granted private contractors… —– Related video: Israel plans […]
A $9 Trillion War? Top 10 Reasons Americans will Regret it if GOP Derails Iran Negotiations
(By Juan Cole) 40 Republican senators are making a last-minute push to bring further Iran sanctions up for a vote despite the opposition of senate majority leader Harry Reid. Some 59 senators signed on to a plan to increase sanctions during President Obama’s negotiations with Iran, which Iranian leaders have argued could derail the talks. […]
Daily Show on al-Qaeda & Syria Part Deux: That’s not how Bin Laden would have Killed Them
This part of the piece has the clip of my interview on the subject at Aljazeera America. Here is the second part of the Jon Stewart piece on the break between al-Qaeda and its former affiliate, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). The Daily Show Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,The Daily […]
Let’s See: Major Droughts in Drying West; Fracking a Water Hog and Causes Drought…
(By Jon Queally) Almost half (47%) of all U.S. wells are being developed in regions with high to extremely high water stress. This means that more than 80 percent of the annual available water is already allocated to municipal, industrial and agricultural users in these regions. The irony of fracking: It destroys the natural resource […]
“The Iranians are Coming!” Derangement Syndrome over 1 Destroyer in Atlantic
(By Juan Cole) Today’s headlines in the US were marked by Iran derangement syndrome. It turns out that Iran has sent “a fleet” of “warships” into the Atlantic Ocean via the Cape of Good Hope. These ships are in international waters, and vessels from all nations ply those waters every day without comment. It is […]
Iraq says recoverable oil reserves stand at 15 billion barrels
By Shaymaa Adel Azzaman, February 8, 2014 Iraq’s recoverable oil reserves have shot to 150 billion barrels, thanks to new major discoveries, Oil Minister Abdulkareem Luaibi said. Previously, the ministry’s official figure of oil reserves stood at 120 billion. Luaibi attributed the surge to “large-scale discoveries made by the ministry in explorations across the country.”(…)
© 2025 All Rights Reserved