Month: January 2010

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Howard Zinn (1922-2010): A Tribute to the Legendary Historian

Democracy Now! January 28, 2010 Democracy Now!

Source: Democracy Now!

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

Part Four

We pay tribute to the late historian, writer and activist Howard Zinn, who died suddenly on Wednesday of a heart attack at the age of eighty-seven. Howard Zinn’s classic work A People’s History of the United States changed the way we look at history in America. It has sold over a million copies and was recently made into a television special called The People Speak. We remember Howard Zinn in his own words, and we speak with those who knew him best: Noam Chomsky, Alice Walker, Naomi Klein and Anthony Arnove. [includes rush transcript] read more

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Avatar is Real: Pandora is in Central and South America

Carlos A. Quiroz January 28, 2010 Carlos A. Quiroz

Source: Green Left Weekly

Avatar is real: the fictional planet of Pandora exists in South and Central America, and the Na’vi peoples are being displaced and killed right now. The names are different, but the facts are almost the same.

In the next generation, Central and South America will be the battlefields for rich countries to fight over natural resources, which they need to continue growing and keeping up to their consumerist, excessive ways of life. The last pristine, virgin forests on Earth will be taken over by rich and powerful military armies, working on behalf of the interests of multinational corporations.

It’s happening already in the tropical forests and mountains of the continent. Mining, oil, tourism, real estate and other corporations are trying to take over the indigenous peoples’ ancestral lands, in complicity with the local puppet governments. read more

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What Consumers Need to Know About Rent-to-Own Businesses

Elayne Clift January 28, 2010 Elayne Clift

NYC Rent-A-Center Protest
A single mother in Washington State used the store to furnish her living room. But the goods she received were damaged and worn. When she stopped making payments while awaiting replacements her home was accosted by employees of the Rent-A-Center she had patronized. Elsewhere in the same state, a man who called to say his payments would be late due to his wife's hospitalization said collectors tried to kick his door down to repossess his rent-to-own goods.

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US Planning, Arming Yemen Military Operations

Democracy Now! January 27, 2010 Democracy Now!

Source: Democracy Now!

The Washington Post is reporting the US is deeply involved in secret joint operations with Yemeni troops that have killed scores of people, including civilians and suspected al-Qaeda leaders, in the past six weeks. The operations were approved by President Obama and involve several dozen troops from the Joint Special Operations Command. Although US advisers are said not to take part in the raids, they’ve reportedly planned missions, developed tactics, shared intelligence, and provided weapons. read more

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Iraq Inquiry Panel: Britain’s Pride and Shame

Stefan Simanowitz January 27, 2010 Stefan Simanowitz

By the end of his six hour cross examination by the Iraq Inquiry panel in London, Tony Blair's former director of communications and strategy, Alastair Campbell, must have felt as if he had been, in the immortal phrase of a veteran British politician, "savaged by a dead sheep." Arriving at the Chilcot Inquiry, the bags under his eyes suggested that Tony Blair's former communications and strategy director might have suffered a few sleepless nights.