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Photo from Space4Peace.org

The Final Frontier: Washington Prepares for Arms Race in Space

Al Huebner February 14, 2008 Al Huebner

This past fall humanity celebrated the golden anniversary of the Space Age, as measured by the launch into orbit by the Soviet Union of the first Earth-orbiting satellite, Sputnik I, on October 1 1957. Today that stunning technical achievement has become routine. More than 4,500 satellites have been launched into orbit and more than 850 of them still operate. Private companies now launch satellites, as do a large numbers of countries. Less well known is the attempt to put weapons in space.

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Off the Page and Into the Streets: A Graphic History of SDS

Dan Berger February 13, 2008 Dan Berger

From Art Spiegelman's Maus to Alison Bechdel's Fun Home, the graphic form has proved a powerful narrative tool. Combining memoir and social commentary in a visually appealing package, such illustrated stories blur the boundaries of art and history, reality and fantasy. It should be no surprise, then, that social movements-those rare hybrids of reality and fantasy-are finding themselves increasingly illustrated. Walter Benjamin's argument that radicalism politicizes art seems more relevant now than ever.

Photo by Mark Knobil

Chad: Crossing the Chari

Rene Wadlow February 13, 2008 Rene Wadlow

Refugee Camp in Chad, Photo by Mark Knobil
The recent fighting in Ndjamena, Chad on February 2-6 between an alliance of insurgencies and the army of President Idriss Déby Itno has highlighted the transnational politics of Sudan, Chad, and the Central African Republic. Europeans and Americans living in Ndjamena were flown out by French Army planes, mostly to Libreville, Gabon where France has a military airbase. Many ordinary Chadians, an estimated 20,000, walked or drove across the two bridges which span the river Chari into northern Cameroon.

Photo by Evan Abramson

Undermining Bolivia: A Landscape of Washington Intervention

Benjamin Dangl February 11, 2008 Benjamin Dangl

US Embassy in La Paz
A thick fence, surveillance cameras, and armed guards protect the U.S. Embassy in La Paz. The embassy is a tall, white building with narrow slits of windows that make it look like a military bunker. After passing through a security checkpoint, I sit down with U.S. Embassy spokesman Eric Watnik and ask if the embassy is working against the socialist government of Evo Morales. "Our cooperation in Bolivia is apolitical, transparent, and given directly to assist in the development of the country," Watnik tells me. "It is given to benefit those who need it most." From the Bush Administration's perspective, that turns out to mean Morales's opponents.

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Cambodia’s Lawless Leaders and Landless Poor

Will Baxter February 7, 2008 Will Baxter

Resident of Dey Krahorm Community
Phnom Penh, Cambodia-Driven by bald-faced corruption at the highest levels in the Cambodian government, the poor and disenfranchised of the country are systematically being stripped of their land under the guise of development schemes, economic land concessions, and through the exploitation of a continually failing legal system.