Wisconsin was not and is not “broke.” Its pension system gets a “gold star” for soundness, and it has no enduring structural shortfall in revenues. Gov. Scott Walker gave business a $500 million tax break and caused the budget deficit thereby, and then claimed that social spending had to be slashed and public unions destroyed […]
AU proposes Ceasefire, NATO protects Misrata, Ajdabiya
NATO finally seemed to get its act together on Sunday, striking multiple Qaddafi tanks at Misrata and Ajdabiya and allowing the rebels to hang on in each place. At Twitter we read, “@feb17voices: LPC #Misrata: No casualties from intense attack by Gaddafi forces but extensive damage to steel factory area, gas storage tanks. #Libya”. I […]
Al-Sadr Threatens Mahdi Army Revival if US Troops Stay
Al-Hayat writing in Arabic reports that nationalist Shiite clergyman Muqtada al-Sadr threatened on Saturday to revive his Mahdi Army militia if US troops tried to stay in Iraq past December 31, 2011. He said his fighters would return to carrying arms. Tens of thousands of Iraqi protesters, mainly his supporters, gathered beginning early in the […]
Hundreds of Thousands of Arabs Protest their Governments
On Friday, the US Congress endeavored to decide whether American democracy has irretrievably broken down because the representatives of the Billionaires refused to compromise with the representatives of the People (“cutting spending” while “cutting taxes” means “shifting the cost of running society to the middle class from the filthy rich”). The answer was that it […]
Thomas Jefferson in Arabic
I am excited to announce that the Global Americana Institute has, in partnership with Dar al-Saqi of Beirut brought out a volume of selected writings of Thomas Jefferson in Arabic. It was elegantly translated by Professors Mounira Soliman and Walid Hamamsy of Cairo University and is entitled in Arabic the equivalent of Revolutionary Democracy: How […]
Is the FBI Lying to Congress about its Abuses of the “PATRIOT” Act?
Techdirt asks, “Is the FBI lying to Congress about its abuses of the PATRIOT Act? and answers in the affirmative. Actually there is plenty of indication in the public record of abuses in the sense of using the act for criminal rather than purely security-related prosecutions and warrantless wiretapping, something the Bureau initially promised never […]
Should Professors in Public Universities Give up their Email Addresses?
The latest McCarthyite tactics of the American Right Wing is to attempt to intimidate professors at public universities by launching Freedom of Information Requests for their emails, as part of a witch hunt for dreaded Liberal Opinions. First, the proxies for the Koch brothers in the Wisconsin legislature went after the emails of prominent University […]
Reuters: Saudi-US Plan to Nudge Saleh Out as Demonstrators Stage Tsunami of Taiz
Reuters reporters in Dubai are saying that a diplomat with knowledge of the negotiations going on between the Gulf Cooperation Council and Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh told them that the plan was to have Saleh step down in favor of a transitional ruling council that would prepare for elections. Among those mentioned as potential […]
OSC: Yemeni Tribes, Movements, Youth, Organizations Decry Regime’s ‘Bloody Massacres’
The USG Open Source Center translates reactions of major political groupings in Yemen to the massacre of protesters in Taiz [Ta’izz] by security forces on Monday and the wounding of some 50 with live fire at al-Hodeida the same day. Yemeni Tribes, Movements, Youth, Organizations Decry Regime’s ‘Bloody Massacres’… Wednesday, April 6, 2011 … Document […]
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