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Ibrahim Rugova: Non-violent Actions in Violent Kosovo

Rene Wadlow February 13, 2006 Rene Wadlow

Just as negotiations on the "final status" of Kosovo were to start on January 25 under the chairmanship of Martii Ahtisaari, former President of Finland and a seasoned negotiator, Ibrahim Rugova, President of Kosovo, died of lung cancer in the Kosovo capital Pristina. The start of the final status talks have been postponed but should start relatively soon as the negotiating team that Rugova had put together should be able to continue, but without the long-range vision and spirit of reconciliation that Rugova represented.

We Are Iran: The Persian Blogs

Melody Zagami February 9, 2006 Melody Zagami

"This is love: to fly toward a secret sky, to cause a hundred veils to fall each moment. First to let go of life. Finally, to take a step without feet." - Iranian Born Poet, Rumi

Nine centuries after Rumi penned these words, young Iranians post blogs to express themselves in a nation where drinking liquor and wearing lipstick warrants public flogging. The modern day "secret sky" is the world wide web, the veils have not fallen and though Rumi was speaking of love, it is, in today's Iran, interchangeable with freedom.

The Demise of a President, Constitutional Irrelevency and the Media That Failed to Notice

Sandy Leon Vest February 8, 2006 Sandy Leon Vest

January 20, 2006 should have been heralded in headlines across the nation as a historical turning point in US history. Instead, Conyers et Ors Hearing on Domestic Spying, headed by Representative John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich), was literally and figuratively held underground in the dark recesses of the nation's capitol building. The hearings, which featured a politically variegated roster of witnesses, took place in room B339 of the Rayburn House Office Building. The 'B' stands for basement. According to the Majority party, it was the only room available. This despite the fact that the briefing was held on a day when no other hearings were being held and the rest of Congress was on vacation.

The World Social Forum and the Streets in Caracas, Venezuela

April Howard and Benjamin Dangl February 7, 2006 April Howard and Benjamin Dangl

Caracas, Venezuela is a city made up of skyscrapers, colonial architecture and, wherever possible, the do-it-yourself tile and cement houses of poor neighborhoods, known as barrios. Though the local mainstream media ignored the coming of the 2006 World Social Forum, Caracans themselves found out quickly as they watched a parade of activists from across the globe pour into their city waving banners, setting up tents and discussing the state of the world on park benches and hotel lobbies.

Remembering Coretta Scott King

Robert R. Goldberg February 6, 2006 Robert R. Goldberg

Coretta Scott King sadly passed away on January 31. As a public figure, both before and after the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s murder in April 1968, she took part in and led countless battles for human rights, peace, and racial, gender and sexual equality.

A People’s History of Iraq: 1950 to November 1963

Bob Feldman February 2, 2006 Bob Feldman

Most people in the United States would like to have seen the 140,000-plus U.S. troops who are still occupying Iraqi soil (in support of special U.S. corporate interests) to be finally withdrawn from Iraq by Christmas 2005. Yet neither Bush Administration officials nor Democratic Party establishment politicians appeared willing to bring U.S. troops in Iraq back to the U.S. any time soon. They still apparently do not want to admit that the demand by U.S. anti-war movement demonstrators that no U.S. troops be sent to Iraq was a wiser foreign policy option to implement than their bipartisan foreign policy of "authorizing the use of United States Armed Force against Iraq."