Fr. Gérard Jean-Juste dies at 62
by Laura Wides-Munoz
MIAMI -- The Rev. Gerard Jean-Juste, an influential Haitian Roman Catholic priest who was once jailed in Haiti for his political activities and fought for his countrymen's rights in the U.S., died Wednesday. He was 62.He died in a Miami-area hospital, said immigration attorney Ira Kurzban, who was a longtime friend. Jean-Juste's brother, Kernst, said he died of complications from a stroke and a lung problem. |
A redneck view of the Obamarama
by Joe Bageant
This column originally appeared on the web site of the Australian Broadcasting Company.When it comes to expressing plain truths, few are as gifted as American rednecks. During recent travels in the Appalachian communities of West Virginia, Tennessee and Kentucky I've collected scores of their comments on our national condition and especially President Barack Obama. |
A quiet, gentle moment during Rolling Thunder
by Doug Thompson
This past Sunday, while riding in Rolling Thunder XXII, a group of us pulled to the side of Constitution Avenue to stop and shake hands with two vets in wheelchairs.While I waited for my turn in line, a Vietnamese woman about my age came out of the crowd, handed me a flower, kissed me on the cheek and said "thank you" in both English and Vietnamese before disappearing back into the throng. |
Top Republican undermines attack on Sotomayor by admitting courts make laws
by David Edwards and John Byrne
The top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee appears to have undermined a key argument leveled by Republicans against Obama’s Supreme Court nominee.Namely, he said that the Supreme Court “sets the law” — and in effect legislates from the bench. Republicans have previously used assertions that judges shouldn’t take activist stances, and should cleave closely to established law. |
April housing sales soar in Broward County, inch up in Palm Beach County
by Paul Owers
Bargain hunters are having their way with South Florida's depressed housing market.Big price declines are driving sales as buyers scoop up a bevy of bank-owned properties.Broward County's median price for existing homes in April was $191,300, down 36 percent from $298,100 a year ago, the Florida Association of Realtors said Wednesday. Sales countywide jumped 33 percent, to 690 from 518. |
Legislator calls for HIV-infected citizens to be branded on the buttocks
by John Byrne
Apologizes after uproar; William F. Buckley suggested it four years agoA legislator in the African nation of Swaziland has called for all those infected with the HIV virus to be branded on the buttocks."I have a solution to this virus. The solution will come from a law that will make it compulsory to test for HIV. Once you test positive, you should be branded on the buttocks," quipped parliamentarian Timothy Myeni. |
GM's soft landing
by Jack Lessenberry
Usually, this column, in my sweet and gentle way, screams at you to pay attention to one or more of the many messes in our city, state and nation. But not all is gloom and doom, and there are a few glimmers of hope to keep in mind, even as the evictors carry your mattress out to the pavement. |
US Army Prepared to Stay in Iraq for a Decade
by Alex Spillius and agencies
The Pentagon is prepared to remain in Iraq for as long as a decade despite an agreement between Washington and Baghdad that would bring all American troops home by 2012, according to the US army chief of staff.Gen George Casey said the world remained "dangerous and unpredictable", and the Pentagon must plan for extended US combat and stability operations in both Iraq and Afghanistan that could deploy 50,000 US military personnel for a decade. |
Survey: Most economists see recession end in '09
by Jeannine Aversa
WASHINGTON -- More than 90 percent of economists predict the recession will end this year, although the recovery is likely to be bumpy.That assessment came from leading forecasters in a survey by the National Association for Business Economics released Wednesday. It is generally in line with the outlook from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and his colleagues. |
Former Bush Homeland Security pick indicted
by Doug Thompson
Former New York police commissioner Bernard Kerik, the man former President George W. Bush wanted to head Homeland Security, now faces charges of lying about taking bribes from contractors who rennovated his New York apartment while serving as the Big Apple's top cop. |
The Silence of MoveOn
by Tom Hayden
The most powerful grassroots organization of the peace movement, MoveOn, remains silent as the American wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan simmer or escalate.Then he met with Obama in February, Jason Ruben, executive director of MoveOn, told the president it was "the moment to go big," then indicated that MoveOn would not oppose the $94 billion war supplemental request, nor the 21,000 additional troops to Afghanistan, nor the increased civilian casualties from the mounting number of Predator attacks. |
North Korea Restarts Nuclear Reactor and Threatens to Attack South
by Justin McCurry
Seoul's participation in US-led ship searches 'equal to declaration of war'The North Korea nuclear crisis deepened today after the regime reportedly restarted its main nuclear reactor and threatened to attack South Korea if it joined US-led inspections of vessels suspected of carrying weapons of mass destruction. |
'There's No Way I'm Going to Deploy to Afghanistan'
by Dahr Jamail
MARFA, Texas - "It's a matter of what I'm willing to live with," Specialist Victor Agosto of the U.S. Army, who is refusing orders to deploy to Afghanistan, explained to IPS. "I'm not willing to participate in this occupation, knowing it is completely wrong." |
Another Bad Week
by William Rivers Pitt
'All life is a blur of Republicans and meat.'-- Bill GriffithThe Law of Large Numbers tells us the Republican Party is bound to get its act together sooner or later. One of these days, someone within or without the party is actually going to hit the fairway, if only by dint of repetition. Some, probably within the GOP base, would call such sentiments an expression of faith, hope for the evidence of things not seen, which is not entirely misplaced; spin the roulette wheel enough times and the ball is eventually going to click itself into your slot. |
Obama's Guantanamo Appeasement Plan
by Marjorie Cohn
Two days after his inauguration, President Obama pledged to close Guantanamo within one year. The Republicans, led by Senators John McCain, Mitch McConnell and Pat Roberts, immediately launched a concerted campaign to assail the new president. They claimed his plan would release dangerous terrorists into U.S. communities and allow released terrorists to resume fighting against our troops. Fox News agitator Sean Hannity and Bush team players like torture-memo lawyer John Yoo filled the airwaves and print media with paranoia. |
Overcoming the Poverty of Ambition: Barack Obama and the Bully Pulpit
by David Michael Green
Presidents, and especially former presidents, sometimes say things that will surprise you.One of the most surprising to may people, and one of the most thematically consistent, is the insistence of their claim to the weakness of the office. In making that complaint, I believe it was Lyndon Johnson - one of the most powerful of American presidents, and the one who accomplished, for better or worse, far more than most of his colleagues in the position - who said in frustration something along the lines of, What can I do? The only power that I have is the bomb, and I can't use that'. |
What does it take to get discredited as a moralizing right-wing 'family values' merchant these days?
by Matt Taibbi
So step right up and buy your "I'm SEXY enough... to make you wait!" t-shirts, courtesy of the Candie's Foundation -- the pro-abstinence group whose ambassador is now America's most famous "Oh, fuck it, it feels better without the rubber" Supermom, Bristol Palin! |
Memorial Day - 2009
by Mark Biskeborn
We marched out searching for Ho Chi Minh,Maybe we were just looking for a friend?My older brother died in the warThough, I forgot what he was fighting for.Anyhow, it don’t matter anymore.Maybe it was on one of those French shoresWhere my father picked up shrapnel. |
The Politics of Fear Again - or Why Liz Cheney Won't Shut Up
by Dennis Jett
An article of mine from the McClatchy News wire today:GOP's politics of fear hinders Guantanamo's closingBy Dennis JettSpecial to McClatchy NewspapersTuesday, May 26, 2009Some politicians seek office by attempting to inspire voters. Others use another tactic. They know that there is nothing as effective as fear for paralyzing the brains of the public. And they depend on that fact to stay in power or to defend their record once they leave it. |
Credit Default Swaps: The poison in the system
by Mike Whitney
In a little more than a decade, Credit Default Swaps (CDS) have ballooned into a multi-billion dollar industry which has changed the fundamental character of the financial system. CDS, which were originally created to reduce potential losses from defaulting bonds, has turned into a cash cow for the big banks, generating mega-profits on, what amounts to, legalized gambling. CDS are the root-cause of systemic risk which connects hundreds of financial institutions together in a lethal daisy-chain that threatens to crash the entire system if one of the main players goes under. |
