Jul 22 2009
David Barsamian on the People and Politics of South/Central Asia
The month of July is not even over and yet it has been the deadliest month ever for US forces in Afghanistan. More than 2 dozen troops have been killed in July as a major ground offensive is underway in the southern province of Helmand, leading to a total of 746 soldiers deaths since the start of Operation Enduring Freedom. …
The month of July is not even over and yet it has been the deadliest month ever for US forces in Afghanistan. More than 2 dozen troops have been killed in July as a major ground offensive is underway in the southern province of Helmand, leading to a total of 746 soldiers deaths since the start of Operation Enduring Freedom. …
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Yesterday marked the 40th anniversary of when astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin took the first human steps and planted an American flag on the surface of the moon. The event was the culmination of nearly a decade-long effort through the Apollo Space Program, which cost $25 billion in 1969. Those moments we just heard were watched or listened …
President Mauricio Funes of El Salvador has refused to issue a permit to a Canadian company seeking to mine gold on the grounds of environmental pollution. In response, the Pacific Rim Mining Corporation is suing the Central American nation for $100 million dollars claiming that it is in violation of CAFTA’s nondiscrimination provision. The Central America Free Trade Agreement, which …
California lawmakers reached a deal to close the state’s $26 billion budget gap yesterday, agreeing on $15 billion in spending cuts. Of those cuts, $9 billion will be from education, $1.3 billion from state-worker furloughs, and $1.2 billion from the prison system. The Democratic controlled legislature is expected to vote on the budget this Thursday. Meanwhile, anticipating the severe cuts …
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and state lawmakers have stalled in negotiations addressing the $ 26.3 billion budget shortfall. Reports of optimism preceded talks on Wednesday before breaking down on disagreements regarding cuts to education and Proposition 98. The initiative, passed two decades ago, allocates forty percent of the state’s general fund to public elementary, high school and community colleges. …
Anti-immigration activists and organizations are working towards a new initiative that would end state benefits for undocumented immigrants and their legal status children. Barbara Coe of the California Coalition for Immigration Reform, who co-authored Prop 187 in 1994, is a leading supporter of the new measure. Sharing much in common with its predecessor, the effort, which is seeking …
Chris Hedges’ latest tome is a systematic deconstruction of the matrix of American illusions: the overwhelming ways in which our culture and our lives, are severed from the complexities of reality into the one-dimensional worlds of celebrities, infotainment, pornography, advertising, and nationalism. In Empire of Illusions, this veteran Pulitzer Prize winning journalist takes us from the lurid worlds of …
