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  • Afghanistan : Escalation or Social Justice?

    Image from AfterDowningStreet.Obama's escalation in AfghanistanFaces immediate oppositionBy Harvey Wasserman / The Rag Blog / December 1, 2009Tonight at 8 p.m. EST President Barack Obama is set to announce his commitment to the worst blunder in U.S. policy since Lyndon Johnson escalated the Vietnam War.That was in March, 1965. Johnson's' [...]
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    Posted: December 01, 2009, 5:10am EST

  • Tiger Woods : It's How You Play the Game

    Photo from Reuters.Slave labor and toxic dumping:Tiger Woods and his corporate partnersThis is business as usual for Woods who would sooner swallow a five-iron than take anything resembling a political stand.By Dave Zirin / December 1, 2009During the Bill Clinton impeachment idiocy of 1998, many on the left said that [...]
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    Posted: December 01, 2009, 4:30am EST

  • Rebecca Solnit : Reflections on Fanaticism

    John Brown depicted in detail from a mural by John Steuart Curray titled "Tragic Prelude," in the Kansas State Capitol in Topeka.Today's fanatic, tomorrow's saintIt's popular to think that the world gets changed by nice people, but the lives of activists past and present tell us otherwiseBy Rebecca Solnit / [...]
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    Posted: November 30, 2009, 6:58pm EST

  • Rabbi Arthur Waskow : 10 Best Reasons to Send Troops to Afghanistan

    Ten best reasons to send more U.S. troopsBy Rabbi Arthur Waskow / The Rag Blog / November 30, 200910. If you want to breed and train more would-be terrorists who hate the USA, the best way to do so is attacking Afghan villages where key Al Qaeda cells have left [...]
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    Posted: November 30, 2009, 6:08pm EST

  • Health Care Reform : The Final Act

    Photo by Benjamin Simpson / Hodomania.Final curtain:The health care tragedyBy Dr. Stephen R. Keister / The Rag Blog / November 30, 2009I was recently privileged to have the opportunity to discuss world affairs, and health care in particular, with an affluent Swiss businessman visiting in this area. He, as are [...]
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    Posted: November 30, 2009, 5:00pm EST

  • Afghanistan Escalation : Footprint We Can't Afford

    Ecological footprint. Image from Sprayblog.Escalation in Afghanistan:What's the carbon/health footprint of another senseless war?By Harvey Wasserman / The Rag Blog / November 30, 2009The Afghan War may now doom our ability both to cope with the global climate crisis and to fairly deliver health care in this country.If Barack Obama [...]
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    Posted: November 30, 2009, 7:59am EST

  • Turk Pipkin : A Simple Truth... or Two

    Turk Pipkin with students at Mahiga Primary School in Kenya.One Peace at a Time:A simple truth… or twoBy Turk Pipkin / The Rag Blog / November 30, 2009With the problems of the world appearing more challenging with each passing year, there has never been a greater need for simple truths [...]
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    Posted: November 30, 2009, 7:30am EST

  • Cannabis Commerce : Wasted Potential

    Graphic from sloshspot.CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGEPut that in your pipe and smoke itLove it or hate it, people smoke marijuana -- lots of it. In some states marijuana consumption and possession have been decriminalized, and even legalized for medicinal purposes. But, have you ever wondered how large the economics [...]
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    Posted: November 30, 2009, 6:52am EST

  • Jonah Raskin : 40 Years Later: The Assassination of Fred Hampton

    Black Panther leader Fred Hampton in 1969. Photo by Paul Sequeira.I will never forget...The assassination of Fred HamptonI protested in New York with hundreds of other people, all of us outraged... I was arrested and beaten on 51st Street opposite St. Patrick’s Cathedral by plainclothes police officers, and, along with [...]
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    Posted: November 29, 2009, 1:28pm EST

  • Legacy of the Neocons : Understanding our Economic Fix

    Understanding our economic fix:The role of neocon economics in damaging the economy and creating unemploymentBy Sherman DeBrosse / The Rag Blog / November 29, 2009If Republicans can blame economic problems on Democratic spending, they will have a leg up in their efforts to launch another attack on entitlements. By next [...]
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    Posted: November 29, 2009, 10:50am EST

  • A Dog's Life : America's Financial Mess

    A walk in the park: Scout and Missy take a breather. Photo by Larry Ray / The Rag Blog.A walk in the park:A Felliniesque view of our financial messBy Larry Ray / The Rag Blog / November 27, 2009Walking my dogs under a crisp, cool, bright blue sky a few [...]
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    Posted: November 27, 2009, 7:21pm EST

  • John Ross : A Mexican Revolution Every 100 Years?

    "Revolución." Woodcut by José Guadalupe Posada / Biografías y Vidas.1810! 1910! 2010?A Mexican Revolution timelineBy John Ross / The Rag Blog / November 26, 2009MEXICO CITY -- Fact: Every 100 years on the tenth year of the century, Mexico explodes in extravagant social upheaval. In 1810, this distant neighbor nation [...]
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    Posted: November 26, 2009, 10:08am EST

  • Tom Hayden : Obama is 'Kicking the Can' on Afghanistan

    Kicking the can. Image from Oskar Rough.Obama's Afghanistan policy:Playing to the imaginary centerLike President Johnson before him, President Obama is squandering any hope for his progressive domestic agenda by this tragic escalation of the war.By Tom Hayden / The Rag Blog / November 26, 2009See 'Oakland’s Rep. Barbara Lee continues [...]
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    Posted: November 26, 2009, 8:35am EST

  • Greg Moses : Thanksgiving and the Popol Vuh

    Popol Vuh Series, Number 5, 1943, lithograph, Carlos Merida, from Art Museum of the Americas.A Thanksgiving day well made:We remember the Popol VuhBy Greg Moses / The Rag Blog / November 26, 2009Crawling down below Meauan Mountain, where ground meets sea level, the first grandson of America whispers a plot [...]
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    Posted: November 26, 2009, 7:54am EST

  • Thirty Years and Counting : Radioactive News from Three Mile Island

    Three Mile Island. Graphic from The Infrastructurist.The new nuke media machine:Fluff, lies and radiation from TMIBy Harvey Wasserman / The Rag Blog / November 25, 2009Yet another "perfectly safe" release at Three Mile Island has irradiated yet another puff of hype about alleged "green" support for new reactors.The two are [...]
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    Posted: November 25, 2009, 6:08pm EST

  • Life During Wartime : The Great Society

    Political cartoon by Joshua Brown / Historians Against the War / The Rag BlogThanks to Dr. S.R. Keister /The Rag Blog [...]
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    Posted: November 25, 2009, 4:48pm EST

  • Rabbi Arthur Waskow : Fort Hood and the Prophetic 'IF'

    These battle-weary troops from the 1st Air Cav had just staged a "combat refusal" at the PACE firebase in Vietnam. There were also countless instances of "fragging" against officers by Vietnam GI's. Photo from NAM - The Story of the Vietnam War (Issue 8).How will the community respond?Fort Hood and' [...]
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    Posted: November 25, 2009, 12:31pm EST

  • BOOKS / The Great Turning : From Empire to Earth Community

    The Great Turning: Moving in a radical new directionBy Alex Knight / The Rag Blog / November 25, 2009We stand at a critical moment in Earth’s history, a time when humanity must choose its future. As the world becomes increasingly interdependent and fragile, the future at once holds great peril [...]
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    Posted: November 25, 2009, 9:29am EST

  • Colombian Invasion : Touching All the Bases

    A sign in Caracas, Venezuela, denounces expanded U.S. military presence in Colombia. Photo by Thomas Coex / AFP / Getty Images.Just the beginning?The U.S buildup in ColombiaBy Marion Delgado / The Rag Blog / November 24, 2009CARTAGENA DE INDIES, Colombia -- Larandia Air Force Base, Departmento Caquetá, in southern Colombia, [...]
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    Posted: November 24, 2009, 5:00pm EST

  • Paul Krassner : In Praise of Indecency

    Paul Krassner depicted in Oui Magazine advertisement for an upcoming October 1975 interview. Graffiti includes references to the Realist mascot, Lenny Bruce, and Jerry Rubin. Image from the Realist Archive Project.In praise of indecency:Paul Krassner is our 'Satirist-Laureate'By Harvey Wasserman / The Rag Blog / November 24, 2009It’s time our [...]
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    Posted: November 24, 2009, 8:24am EST

  • Ted McLaughlin : The Backpacks of Moberly

    A quiet way of helping:The backpacks of Moberly, Missouri...we began to realize that some of these children go home to houses where they literally may not eat over the weekend. And we couldn't just sit back and not do anything to help them.By Ted McLaughlin / The Rag Blog /' [...]
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    Posted: November 23, 2009, 3:43pm EST

  • Honduras : The 'Election' and the Resistencia

    Above,“Golpistas: Here Is Your Vote.” Rebelión poster. Demonstration against electoral campaign, Intibucá. Photo from Indymedia Honduras.Micheletti prepares for election;Moves against boycott, resistanceBy David Holmes Morris / The Rag Blog / November 23, 2009With a nod of approval from the U.S. State Department, the de facto president of Honduras, Roberto Micheletti, [...]
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    Posted: November 23, 2009, 12:58pm EST

  • The REAL Death Panel : Congress Gutting Reform

    Photo by Mike Albans / AP.The real death panel:A requiem for true health care reform?By Dr. Stephen R. Keister / The Rag Blog / November 22, 2009It was ten years ago that I lost my wife who was my buddy and companion. The Lady succumbed to a particularly virulent type [...]
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    Posted: November 22, 2009, 1:18pm EST

  • Health Care Hypocrisy : The GOP's Nutty Screaming

    "Wait Times!" Cartoon by Matt Bors.The GOP's health care nuttinessAnd the insurance industry backstoryThe problem the right has with health care reform is not that it represents intrusive government (it doesn’t). It’s that it doesn’t represent the kind of intrusive, authoritarian government they like.By Glenn W. Smith / The Rag [...]
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    Posted: November 22, 2009, 11:01am EST

  • Agriculture : The Uses of Biotechnology

    Genetic science in agriculture:The uses of biotechnologyBy Roger Baker / The Rag Blog / November 22, 2009I recently wrote about GMO’s on The Rag Blog ("The Future of Agriculture: Genetics and the Limits of Oil") and I want to expand a little on the thoughts I presented in that article.Biotechnology [...]
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    Posted: November 22, 2009, 8:30am EST

  • Val Liveoak : Remembering the 'Tope' in El Salvador

    Mural at the University of Central America in San Salvador depicts martyred Jesuit priests and suggests complicity of the nation’s business and political leadership.Slain Jesuit priests honored in El SalvadorIn El Salvador, six Jesuit priests are being honored twenty years after their murders by the U.S.-backed Salvadoran military. On Monday [...]
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    Posted: November 21, 2009, 1:20pm EST

  • Bart Stupak and the Family : The Power of C Street

    Above, the Fellowship's house on C Street in Washington, D.C. Photo by Olivier Douliery / Abaca Press / MCT. Below, U.S. Rep. Bart Stupak. Photo by Susan Walsh / AP.The Fellowship on C Street:Bart Stupak and the impact of the Family Expect it to grow in power if economic conditions [...]
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    Posted: November 21, 2009, 9:49am EST

  • A Modest Proposal : Eat the Rich!

    Photo by chrisjfry / Flickr.Serve the people!Carve up Wall StreetBy Alex Knight / The Rag Blog / November 20, 2009See Amy Goodman's interview with Robert Scheer on Wall Street and the economy, from Democracy Now!, Below.Yesterday, Democracy Now! reported that two major records have been broken in 2009 -- Wall [...]
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    Posted: November 20, 2009, 2:05pm EST

  • A Modest Poroposal : Eat the Rich!

    Photo by chrisjfry / Flickr.Serve the people!Carve up Wall StreetBy Alex Knight / The Rag Blog / November 20, 2009See Amy Goodman's interview with Robert Scheer on Wall Street and the economy, from Democracy Now!, Below.Yesterday, Democracy Now! reported that two major records have been broken in 2009 -- Wall [...]
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    Posted: November 20, 2009, 12:06pm EST

  • Robert Jensen : How I Stopped Hating Thanksgiving

    "The First Thanksgiving," painting by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris (1863–1930) / Wikimedia Commons.How I stopped hating ThanksgivingAnd learned to be afraidThis is a society in which even progressive people routinely allow national and family traditions to trump fundamental human decency.By Robert Jensen / The Rag Blog / November 20, 2009I [...]
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    Posted: November 20, 2009, 10:07am EST

  • Lily Keber : Putting Families in Jail in America

    Putting children in jail:T. Don Hutto and family detention in AmericaAs hope for change in Obama immigration policy dwindles, activists speculate on the fate of family detention.By Lily Keber / The Rag Blog / November 20, 2009See 'Hutto: America's Family Prison,' A film by Lily Keber and Matt Gossage, Below.When' [...]
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    Posted: November 20, 2009, 9:06am EST

  • Rogues and Centrists : How Media Frame the World

    The symbolic uses of politics:The Gipper and the RogueBy Harry Targ / The Rag Blog / November 20, 2009Moderate Republicans -- yes, they are not extinct, though most are in hiding -- scoff at Sarah Palin and wish she would go away....Reagan piously gave lip service to the right-wing social [...]
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    Posted: November 19, 2009, 9:03pm EST

  • R.I.P. Bill Narum : Legendary Artist of the Texas Counterculture

    Below, cover of Space City!, June 1, 1971. Illustration and design by Bill Narum.Bill Narum was a dear friend of The Rag Blog and my personal friend and colleague for more than four decades. He was art director at Space City!, the pioneering underground paper we published in Houston in [...]
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    Posted: November 19, 2009, 12:58pm EST

  • The Future of Agriculture : Genetics and the Limits of Oil

    Agriculture, genetics and a sustainable future......the oil requirement for U.S. food production and transportation will no doubt loom as a much bigger factor, forcing a restructuring of the food industry.By Roger Baker / The Rag Blog / November 18, 2009An old friend, Val Liveoak, posting on a Rag-junkie list, drew [...]
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    Posted: November 18, 2009, 2:11pm EST

  • Minsinformation and the Economy : The Games Republicans Play

    The independents are jumping ship...Republican misinformation and economic realityBy Sherman DeBrosse / The Rag Blog / November 18, 2009By persistent obstructionism and using endless false information, the GOP pulled off some big wins in the 2009 elections. Worse still, they have been able to convince people that Obama has handled [...]
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    Posted: November 18, 2009, 1:10pm EST

  • Crazy for God : Frank Schaeffer on the Rachel Maddow Show

    [There was a remarkable segment on last night's Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC (Nov. 17, 2009). Former evangelical leader Frank Schaeffer described for Maddow and her audience some genuinely frightening activity that is occurring on the fringes of the religious right, including the use of biblical verse to make thinly-cloaked [...]
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    Posted: November 18, 2009, 8:08am EST

  • U.S.-Colombia Treaty : Yanks Prepare to Party Down

    Top, Chiva party bus Cartegena: Party down. Below, "The Yanks are Coming!"The new Colombian war:Nature of U.S. incursion still unclearThe new U.S. air base in Palanquero... will 'expand expeditionary warfare capability' and 'improve global reach' for 'conducting full spectrum operations...' By Marion Delgado / The Rag Blog / November 17, [...]
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    Posted: November 17, 2009, 11:20am EST

  • The Terrorist Trials : Proving We're a Nation of Laws

    Rooftop snipers, armored vehicles and lock-down zones around the courthouse are part of the security plan during the trial of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and his cohorts. Photo by Schwartz / Daily News.Are we a nation of laws?The trial of Khalid Sheikh MohammedBy Ted McLaughlin / The Rag Blog / November [...]
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    Posted: November 17, 2009, 8:45am EST

  • Obama Presidency : One Term if by War, Two if by Peace

    Barack Obama and the Afghanistan decision:One (term) if by war, two if by peaceBy Harvey Wasserman / November 17, 2009As the world awaits Barack Obama's decision on Afghanistan, a lethal myth has spread. It says that standing up to the military will doom him to be a single-term president.The "one" [...]
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    Posted: November 17, 2009, 8:31am EST

  • What Obama Has Done Right : The List of 90

    Grading Obama's presidency:A list of 90 accomplishmentsBy Betty Dubose Hamilton / The Rag Blog / November 16, 2009See 'A Grade for Obama: First six months' record,' by Robert P. Watson, Below. With his list of 90 accomplishments, Dr. Robert P. Watson of Lynn University in Boca Raton, Florida, has graded' [...]
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    Posted: November 16, 2009, 4:00pm EST

  • A Morally Bankrupt Military : Spc. Alexis Hutchinson and Pvt. Paul Rich

    Army Spc. Alexis Hutchinson. Below, Alexis with son Kamani Hutchinson. Photos from Oakland Tribune.U.S. Army:Infant to protective services, mom to AfghanistanBy Dahr Jamail / November 16, 2009See 'Morally bankrupt military: When soldiers and their families become expendable,' by Dahr Jamail, Below.VENTURA, California -- U.S. Army Specialist Alexis Hutchinson, a single [...]
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    Posted: November 16, 2009, 10:34am EST

  • Hot Oil! Narco Pirates Smuggle Mexican Petrol into Texas

    Hot oil? Petroleum "pipa" with the mark of the Zetas, the infamous drug cartel branching out into petro-piracy. Photo from NarcoGuerra Times.HOT OIL!Union crooks, drug cartels and U.S. corporations are stealing billions of bucks of Mexican petroleum.By John Ross / The Rag Blog / November 16, 2009MEXICO CITY -- In [...]
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    Posted: November 16, 2009, 8:04am EST

  • Cannabis Café : Getting High in Portland

    Portland's Cannabis Cafe opened on Friday the 13th of November, 2009. Photo from The Portland Mercury.Dutch-style pot shop:Cannabis Café is medical marijuana salon...the cafe comes almost a month after the Obama administration told federal attorneys not to prosecute patients who use marijuana for medical reasons or dispensaries in states which [...]
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    Posted: November 15, 2009, 3:52pm EST

  • Dr. Stephen R. Keister : Health Care, Congress and the Inquisition

    It's pure torture:Reviewing the House Health Care planBy Dr. Stephen R. Keister / The Rag Blog / November 15, 2009See 'Healthcare-NOW on the House Health Care bill,' Below.In his excellent review in TheRag Blog, Alex Knight discussed Silvia Federici's new book Calaban and the Witch: Women, the Body and Primitive [...]
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    Posted: November 15, 2009, 1:35pm EST

  • Bitter Tears : The Untold Story of Johnny Cash

    Top, Cash's album, "Bitter Tears," met with opposition from the music industry. Below, Pima Indian Ira Hayes, celebrated by Johnny Cash, helped raise the flag at Iwo Jima, an act caught in the famous photograph by Joe Rosenthal. Hayes died a broken man at 33. Oil print by Pima Indian' [...]
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    Posted: November 15, 2009, 8:35am EST

  • Furor in Columbia : The Yanks are Still Coming

    Venezuela Pres. Hugo Chavez addresses rally in Caracas, Friday, Nov. 13, 2009, protesting U.S.-Columbia military agrement. Photo by Fernando LLano / AP. The U.S. Invasion of Colombia:Touching all the basesBy Marion Delgado / The Rag Blog / November 15, 2009CARTEGENA DES INDIES, Colombia -- The furor over a newly-signed agreement [...]
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    Posted: November 15, 2009, 8:03am EST

  • Ven. Sevan Ross : A Buddhist's View of Wage Theft

    Ven. Sevan Ross, on right, with Unitarian Universalist minister James Ford. Photo from Monkey Mind.A Buddhist’s view of wage theftRight Livelihood and paying people what’s rightAs long as we regard each other not as humans but as the "other," we will suffer profound abuses in the workplace.By Ven. Sevan Ross [...]
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    Posted: November 14, 2009, 5:31pm EST

  • Republicans : Hypocricy as a Pre-Existing Condition

    Republican Chairman Michael Steele says abortion coverage has been removed from the party's insurance policy.Republican Party insurance policyHas covered abortion for eighteen yearsBy Ted McLaughlin / The Rag Blog / November 14, 2009A few days ago, 176 Republicans joined a few blue dog Democrats in voting to attach the odious [...]
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    Posted: November 14, 2009, 2:37pm EST

  • Curbing John O'Neill : The Pipeline and the Saudi-Al Qaeda Connection

    The late John P. O'Neill, former assistant director of the FBI, saw threat of bin Laden early on. O'Neill's attempts to investigate connections with Saudis were thwarted.John O’Neill, the Trans Afghanistan Pipeline:The Saudis, the Bushes and bin LadenBy Sherman DeBrosse / The Rag Blog / November 13, 2009The terrorist attack [...]
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    Posted: November 13, 2009, 9:15am EST

  • Nuke 'Renaissance' : Same Old, Same Old

    Not looking so good:Much-hyped nuclear renaissance'If history repeats itself as farce, then the nuclear power industry represents the most incompetent jester of all time...'By Harvey Wasserman / The Rag Blog / November 12, 2009The much-hyped "renaissance" of atomic power has taken three devastating hits with potentially fatal consequences.The usually supine [...]
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    Posted: November 12, 2009, 8:29am EST

  • Israel and Iran : A Countdown to Tragedy?

    During Iranian street demonstrations this summer a protester displays a photo of Mohammed Mossadegh, deposed by the Americans and the British in 1953 and replaced with the much-hated Shah Reza Pahlavi. Photo posted on Daily Kos, June 19, 2009. Who is the existential threat?Israel and Iran: Countdown to tragedyBy Steve [...]
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    Posted: November 11, 2009, 3:22pm EST

  • Special Delivery : Ft. Hood GI Gives Letter to Obama

    Pfc. Michael Kern. Photo from Cynthia Thomas / Under the Hood Cafe.Stopping by the barracks:GI Michael Kern hands Obama IVAW letterWhat happened at Fort Hood has made it abundantly clear that the military mental health system, and our soldiers, are broken.By Victor Agosto / The Rag Blog / November 11, [...]
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    Posted: November 11, 2009, 12:09pm EST

  • Peter Matthiessen : The Tragedy of Leonard Peltier

    The Tragedy of Leonard Peltier Vs. the United States of America...this man's life leaks away behind grim concrete walls for the unworthy purpose of saving face for the FBI and a U.S. Attorney's Office...By Peter Matthiessen / November 11, 2009On July 27, 2009, I drove west from New York to [...]
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    Posted: November 11, 2009, 9:55am EST

  • Mariann G. Wizard : Ft. Holabird Haiku

    Still life of toy soldiers. Photo by Margaret Bourke-White, Jan 01, 1937 / Time and Life Pictures / Getty ImagesFt. Holabird HaikuSee the soldiers, row on row,green leaves on trees --beware defoliant!Vietnam had soldiers too,green boys in treeswhose limbs are now burnt black.In the spring their leaves renew;people's roots bringfresh' [...]
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    Posted: November 10, 2009, 6:25pm EST

  • Hey Obama : Ride 'em Cowboy!

    C'mon Obama,Let's have a real buildup in Afghanistan!Barack Obama told the nation/'Have no fear of escalation/I am trying everyone to please...'(With apologies to Tom Paxton)By Richard Lee / The Rag Blog / November 11, 2009To Barack Obama:Let’s have a military buildup! You can show those crazy-ass generals at the Pentagon' [...]
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    Posted: November 10, 2009, 6:15pm EST

  • Stupak Amendment : Rolling Back Women's Rights

    The House Health Care bill:Compromising away women's rightsWomen put Obama in office; now we have to call in our chips.By Barbara J. Berg / The Rag Blog / November 10, 2009The thunderous applause greeting the announcement of the House’s health care reform bill, effectively curtailing women’s access to abortion, drowned [...]
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    Posted: November 10, 2009, 4:52pm EST

  • Big Pharma : The Orgasm Scam

    'Restless Vagina Syndrome':Big Pharma's newest fake diseaseBy Terry J. Allen / November 9, 2009It’s not your fault, ladies (and certainly not your partner’s), that you don’t orgasm every time you have intercourse, or that you lack the libido of a 17-year-old boy. You have a disease: female sexual dysfunction (FSD), [...]
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    Posted: November 09, 2009, 9:36pm EST

  • BBC Poll on Capitalism : Where's the Love?

    Global survey on free market capitalism:Majority say fix it or ditch itBy James Robbins / November 9, 2009Twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, a new BBC poll has found widespread dissatisfaction with free-market capitalism.In the global poll for the BBC World Service, only 11% of those questioned [...]
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    Posted: November 09, 2009, 6:40pm EST

  • History as Politics : Remembering the Berlin Wall

    Man straddles Berlin Wall in 1989. Photo from photosfan.com.History as politics, Politics as history: Remembering the Berlin WallBy Harry Targ / The Rag Blog / November 9, 2009...you are Americans and are meant to carry liberty and justice and the principles of humanity wherever you go, go out and sell [...]
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    Posted: November 09, 2009, 5:07pm EST

  • Mexico : Drug Decrim and the 10,000-Ton Monkey

    Pot smoker in Mexico City. Mexicans consume an estimated 342 tons of marijuana a year. Photo by Castillo / AP.Legalization is the only answer...Mexico's massive drug problemAs poet Juan Pablo Garcia posited long ago in his 1985 Pacheco (marijuana user) Manifesto: 'drugs don’t make us criminals but laws against drugs' [...]
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    Posted: November 09, 2009, 10:41am EST

  • Surprise! : Betrayal in Honduras as 'Golpistas' Ignore Accord

    Manuel Zelaya closes a window at the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa. Photo from AFP.Celebration was premature;United States expresses 'disappointment'...negotiating with the golpistas for reinstatement of the democratically elected president is like negotiating with thieves for the return of stolen property.By David Holmes Morris / The Rag Blog / November 8, [...]
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    Posted: November 08, 2009, 3:30pm EST

  • Through the Gate in '66 : Howling Wolf Au Go Go

    Chester Arthur Burnett, aka Howling Wolf.When I was sixteen:Hitting the Village with my grandfatherWolf sang every song to the pretty hippie boy sitting directly in front of me, who turned out to be Davy Jones of the Monkees.By Carl R. Hultberg / The Rag Blog / November 8, 2009When I [...]
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    Posted: November 08, 2009, 11:49am EST

  • Matthew Hoh and Vietnamistan : Déjà vu all Over Again

    A bright and shining lie:Hoh's Afghanistan and John Paul Vann's VietnamBy Richard Lee / The Rag Blog / November 8, 2009I just got a copy of diplomat Matthew Hoh’s resignation letter from a friend in Canada. I don’t get a lot of news from up in the States and what [...]
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    Posted: November 08, 2009, 9:30am EST

  • BOOKS / 'Eating Animals' : The Beef with Factory Farms

    Jonathan Safran Foer's Eating Animals:A sweeping indictment of factory farms...what we should be talking about is how upward of 99 percent of animals are raised and what it does to them, what it does to the environment, what it does to rural communities, what it does to farmers.By Jessica Roy [...]
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    Posted: November 07, 2009, 4:55pm EST

  • American Health Care : Monster Run Amok

    Cartoon by RS Janes / LTSaloon.Once the envy of the world...The American health care disgraceBy Dr. Stephen R. Keister / The Rag Blog / November 7, 2009Between 1910 and 1970 American medicine was the envy of the world. The giants of American culture were its physicians: William Osler. Howard Kelly, [...]
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    Posted: November 07, 2009, 2:29pm EST

  • Real Unemployment Rate : Closing in on the Great Depression

    Good times around the corner?Real unemployment rate at 17.5 percentThis economic disaster was created by far too many years of Reagan-Bush-supply-side-trickle-down-union-busting-corporate-welfare-market-driven economic policy.By Ted McLaughlin / The Rag Blog / November 7, 2009Yes, I know the federal government says the unemployment rate is now 10.2% -- up from 9.8% after [...]
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    Posted: November 07, 2009, 9:09am EST

  • BOOKS / Caliban and the Witch : The Creation of Capitalism

    Who Were the Witches?Patriarchal Terror and the Creation of CapitalismBy Alex Knight / The Rag Blog / November 6, 2009This Halloween season, there is no book I could recommend more highly than Silvia Federici’s brilliant Caliban and the Witch: Women, the Body, and Primitive Accumulation (Autonomedia 2004), which tells the [...]
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    Posted: November 06, 2009, 5:40pm EST

  • Sherman DeBrosse : Pipeline Politics and the Afghanistan War

    Worth all the blood?The Trans Afghanistan PipelineBy Sherman DeBrosse / The Rag Blog / November 6, 2009President Barack Obama recently honored eighteen fallen American soldiers at a midnight ceremony at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware. Let us hope that none of these heroes died in order to pave the [...]
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    Posted: November 06, 2009, 3:09pm EST

  • Alice Embree : Here's to the Soldiers of Fort Hood

    Jackie Thomas at Under the Hood Coffeehouse near Ft. Hood. Photo by Cynthia Thomas / The Rag Blog.Thoughts of Charles Whitman on the tower,And the soldiers who come back broken from warBring the troops home and take care of them.By Alice Embree / The Rag Blog / November 6, 2009A [...]
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    Posted: November 06, 2009, 10:56am EST

  • New Urbanism : Transportation Fantasia in Central Texas

    Cloning the evil broom:Kirk Watson and the New UrbanistsBy Glenn Gaven / The Rag Blog / November 6, 2009In the movie Fantasia, Mickey chops the evil broom into bits only to have them transform into a whole army of equally evil broom clones. Too often this happens in real life, [...]
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    Posted: November 06, 2009, 7:52am EST

  • Dahr Jamail : Ft. Hood Shootings Reflect Problems in U.S. Military

    The sun sets at Ft. Hood, Texas, Thursday, Nov. 5, 2009, as the media awaits a briefing on the day's terrible events. Photo by Michael Thomas / AP.Shootings rock massive Fort HoodAs soldiers point to grim mood at the base 'I’d say [morale is] at an all-time low -- mostly' [...]
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    Posted: November 05, 2009, 9:53pm EST

  • Roger Baker : Debunking the Vaccine Scare

    Graphic by David Dees / deesillustration.comSwine flu vaccine: The facts behind the kerfuffleBy Roger Baker / The Rag Blog / November 5, 2009Are the big pharmaceutical companies endangering our health with risky things like swine flu vaccine? Maybe vaccines are risky, but perhaps not in the same ways and for [...]
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    Posted: November 05, 2009, 4:39pm EST

  • Barack Obama : Stop the Runaway Train

    President Obama: Stop the runaway train of globalization.Long range strategic innovation:Globalization, the financial crisis, environmental planning, and getting out of AfghanistanBy Ray Reece / The Rag Blog / November 5, 2009Call this a lesson in how to ensure your mail to the White House won't be answered. The following proposal' [...]
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    Posted: November 05, 2009, 10:10am EST

  • Columbia Military Pact : The Yanks are Coming

    Colombian President Alvaro Uribe defends military pact with U.S. Photo from AFP.U.S. and Columbia:Military pact signed in 'private' meeting Over There, Over ThereSend the word, send the word,Over ThereThat the Yanks are coming,The Yanks are coming,The drums rum tumming everywhere...By Marion Delgado / The Rag Blog / November 4, 2009CARTAGENA, [...]
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    Posted: November 04, 2009, 1:58pm EST

  • Claude Lévi-Strauss : 'La Pensée Sauvage'

    Anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss: dead at 100.Anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss:Making sense of la pensée sauvageBy Carl R. Hultberg / The Rag Blog / November 4, 2009In French sauvage means wild, not necessarily savage. In our language savage means aggressive, a value judgment left over from centuries of exterminations.Heathens, savages, primitive people, natives. [...]
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    Posted: November 04, 2009, 12:00pm EST

  • Harry Targ : Legitimacy Crisis and the Vietnam Syndrome

    Public suspicion of government on the rise:The return of the Vietnam SyndromeBy Harry Targ / The Rag Blog / November 3, 2009I teach a course on United States foreign policy. I was just finishing up a discussion of foreign policy in the Nixon/Ford (and Kissinger) period, 1968 to 1976. As [...]
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    Posted: November 03, 2009, 11:40am EST

  • James Howard Kunstler : Our Gods are not Happy

    Rough beast, preparing to slouch. Art by Alex "Rhino" Voroshev.Thinking the unthinkable:Cornpone Hitlers and the agony of ordinary peopleBy James Howard Kunstler / November 3, 2009A side-trip to the local mall -- where else to buy ammo around here? -- evinced an epic struggle for supremacy of the chain stores [...]
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    Posted: November 03, 2009, 9:29am EST

  • Robert Jensen : War, the Ecology, and the Quest for Justice

    Professor Robert Jensen.War, ecological crises, and the quest for justice:An interview with Robert JensenIf you feel overwhelmed, it’s because we face an overwhelming situation.By Calvin Sloan / The Rag Blog / November 3, 2009[The following is an edited version of an interview with Robert Jensen conducted by Calvin Sloan for [...]
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    Posted: November 03, 2009, 8:32am EST

  • Hall of Fame Concerts : Rocking the Garden!

    Hall of Fame rock 'n rollers: Bono and Mick Jagger. Photo from Mirror, U.K.Hall of Fame benefit: Taking rock and roll to a new levelBy Harvey Wasserman / The Rag Blog / November 3, 2009[With Gary Baumgarten and Abbie Wasserman]NEW YORK -- Music history has been made with two uniquely' [...]
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    Posted: November 03, 2009, 7:10am EST

  • Health Care Naysayers : Please Get the Message

    Saying it all in sixty seconds:Health care reform is a human issueBy Larry Ray / The Rag Blog / Novemeber 3, 2009I just saw a TV health care message that sensitively illustrates what is happening to too many American lives. A message down on the human level instead of screaming [...]
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    Posted: November 03, 2009, 6:34am EST

  • Jonah Raskin : Fear and Loathing without Hunter S. Thompson

    Gonzo man: Hunter S. Thompson. Illustration by Ralph Steadman / The Badger.Where is Hunter S. ThompsonNow that we need him?At times he could he cynical and depressed, but he also had clarity of vision and a commitment to tell the truth.By Jonah Raskin / The Rag Blog / November 2, [...]
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    Posted: November 02, 2009, 5:34am EST

  • Brad Will : Mexico's Legacy of Murdered Journalists

    Brad Will -- Indymedia journalist murdered in Oaxaca, Mexico, in 2006 -- depicted in "Remembering Anarchists of the Americas" mural, Bound Together Bookstore, San Francisco. Image from Wikipedia.Brad Will is still dead...(So are 55 other journalists murdered in Mexico)Despite the appalling absence of resolution in Will's death three years after [...]
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    Posted: November 02, 2009, 4:35am EST

  • HEALTH / Know Thyself (And Watch Thy Back)

    Nancy Kennedy, 20, downs soda and fries. Photo from LA Times, 1965.A good dose of Healthy Skepticism:Learn what works for youEach of us is inside our body and we know what it feels like better than the M.D. ever will.By Kate Braun / The Rag Blog / October 31, 2009This [...]
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    Posted: October 31, 2009, 3:37pm EDT

  • Photographer Roy DeCarava : 'The Sound I Saw'

    Photographer Roy DeCarava. Photo by triggahappy76 / Flickr.Roy DeCarava : 1919-2009Photographer Roy DeCarava, who died Oct. 27 at age 89, dedicated his 60-year career to capturing images of African Americans. His subjects ranged from daily life in his hometown of Harlem to the Civil Rights movement, but his most noted [...]
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    Posted: October 31, 2009, 11:10am EDT

  • Divine Comedy : Joe Lieberman and the Hypocrites

    The Hypocrites address Dante, from Canto XXIII of Divine Comedy, Inferno, by Dante Alighieri. Engraving by Gustave Doré from Pantheon Books edition / Wikimedia Commons.The Eighth Circle of Hell:Lieberman, Congress and health care reformOf course, Sen. Lieberman does not stand alone as a hypocrite. In his company are all of [...]
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    Posted: October 31, 2009, 9:18am EDT

  • Honduras : A Deal is Cut to Reinstate Zelaya

    Zelaya supporter shouts slogans outside the National Congress. Photo from AFP.Compromise deal restores ZelayaRiot police meet demonstrators with tear gasBy David Holmes Morris / The Rag Blog / October 30, 2009See Val Liveoak's analysis of the latest developments -- plus more photos -- Below.After three weeks of negotiations in a [...]
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    Posted: October 30, 2009, 5:24pm EDT

  • Paul Baker : Giant of Texas Theater Dies at 98

    Paul Baker in front of Dallas Theater Center, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, 1960. Photo by Eliot Elisofon / Life Images.Giant of Texas theater Paul Baker:Director, educator, firebrand dies at 98See 'Paul Baker at Baylor: A student remembers,' by Jim Simons, Below.Texas has lost one of its legendary artistic mavericks: [...]
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    Posted: October 30, 2009, 2:21pm EDT

  • Afghan Hawks : Make Your Case (And Chill with the Hot Air)

    Photo by Michael Yon / Big Hollywood.A suggestion to the Afghan hawks:Give us facts, not just hot air By Sherman DeBrosse / The Rag Blog / October 30, 2009The supporters of Joe Biden seem to be on the defensive in the debate over what to do in Afghanistan even though [...]
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    Posted: October 30, 2009, 1:38pm EDT

  • Sudanese Journalist : Seven Years at Guantanamo was 'Living Hell'

    Above, supporters of Sami Al'Hajj unfurl banner during Al'Hajj's 2008 hunger strike. Below, Al Jazeera interviews Sami Al'Hajj at the Doha International Airport in Quatar, May 30, 2008. Photo by omar_chatriwala / Flickr.Journalist Al'Hajj describes Guantanamo detentionBefore international war crimes conferenceBy Maria J. Dass / October 29, 2009A journalist from [...]
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    Posted: October 29, 2009, 2:47pm EDT

  • Rabbi Arthur Waskow : Some Cockamamie Ideas about Afghanistan

    Afghani women: Offer micro-loans for economic development. Photo from UNHCR.Remembering Pharaoh, Plagues and Exodus...Afghanistan: There has to be a better wayBy Rabbi Arthur Waskow / The Rag Blog / October 29, 2009When some of us outside Washington (and even some inside) say there must be some other way of dealing [...]
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    Posted: October 29, 2009, 10:55am EDT

  • Afghanistan : Tom Friedman's 'Cronkite Moment'?

    Tom Friedman's "Walter Cronkite Moment"?Times columnist reverses field on Afghanistan.By Harvey Wasserman / The Rag Blog / October 29, 2009The Iraq war's chief New York Times cheerleader has reversed field on Afghanistan. Does it mean there will be no escalation?In early 1968, after the devastating Tet Offense, CBS News anchor [...]
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    Posted: October 29, 2009, 9:21am EDT

  • Dick J. Reavis : SDS and the Great Divide

    Image from Students for a Democratic Society: A Graphic History.Today’s Red Book and the demise of SDSNobody present had repudiated Leftism, but everyone seemed to have reached a consensus that the heedlessness of youth had been our common flaw.By Dick J. Reavis / The Rag Blog / October 29, 2009A [...]
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    Posted: October 28, 2009, 9:52pm EDT

  • FILM / William Kunstler : Disturbing the Universe

    William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe...Remarkable film tells story ofFamed civil rights attorneyBy Alice Embree / The Rag Blog / October 28, 2009William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe, a film by Emily Kunstler and Sarah Kunstler, premiered as part of the Austin Film Festival Wednesday, Ocober 27. The film, which was also [...]
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    Posted: October 28, 2009, 1:09pm EDT

  • VERSE / Larry Piltz : In the Opt-Out States of America

    Big digeridoo. Photo from Pihkva.com.I pledge new legions to The Hagueand fresh new lesions to The Plaguefor medicines to moan and begas Corporatocracy humps my legin the Opt-Out States of AmericaRe the Public Option's widget plansfor bleeding gums and swollen glandswith doctors singing oh yes we canaccompanied by Big Insurance [...]
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    Posted: October 27, 2009, 5:20pm EDT

  • FILM / Michael Moore : Anti-Capitalism Goes Mainstream

    Capitalism: A love Story...Michael Moore's new film names the systemAnd presents a radical democratic critiqueBy Alex Knight / The Rag Blog / October 27, 2009Capitalism: A Love Story, which opened in 962 theaters earlier this month, is Michael Moore's most ambitious work yet -- taking aim at the root cause [...]
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    Posted: October 27, 2009, 11:45am EDT

  • Judge Wiliam Wayne Justice : Hispanics and The Right to Vote

    Top, Austin polling place. Photo by T hom / Flickr. Below, Judge William Wayne Justice. Photo from Dallas Morning News.Judge Justice and single member districts:Bringing voting power to all TexansBy George Korbel / The Rag Blog / October 27, 2009[Judge William Wayne Justice was a Texas federal district judge who [...]
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    Posted: October 27, 2009, 9:49am EDT

  • American Peace Movement : Missing in Action

    Demonstration in San Francisco. Photo from basetree.Two cheers for health care reform effortsBut whatever happened to the peace movement?By Harry Targ / The Rag Blog / October 27, 2009For purposes of comparison I want to make some predictions about the outcome of two current political struggles. I predict that some [...]
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    Posted: October 26, 2009, 9:37pm EDT

  • Austin Economy : We're Number 2! Maybe.

    Is this picture too rosy?Austin economy called second strongest By Roger Baker / The Rag Blog / October 26, 2009Here's the proud headline from the October 23, 2009, Austin Business Journal:BusinessWeek: Austin 2nd strongest economy in the nation(Texas had half of the top ten. San Antonio was number one; Dallas-Ft. [...]
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    Posted: October 26, 2009, 3:58pm EDT

  • Mexico : 'Tormenta Electrica' and the 100th Anniversary of the Revolution

    '!Aqui se ve la fuerza del SME!'Chronicle of a Tormenta ElectricaI awoke to the racket of Federal Police helicopters buzzing the Centro Historico like giant gnats. Ever since 1968 when Diaz Ordaz's helicopters dropped flairs to signal the start of the student massacre in the Plaza of Three Cultures, the [...]
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    Posted: October 26, 2009, 9:37am EDT

  • Immigrant Detention in Raymondville, Texas : City With a Frown

    Raymondville vigil - raw footage from Texans United For Families on Vimeo.Protesting immigrant detention inRaymondville: 'City With a Smile'...we were on our way out when two pickups zoomed up to crowd us closer together. The uniformed drivers then took out shotguns and loaded them in front of us, pointing the [...]
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    Posted: October 26, 2009, 8:28am EDT
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