Cross-posted from the “Arguing the World” blog at Dissent magazine.
On November 20, Chalmers Johnson, scholar of East Asian development and critic of American empire, died at age seventy-nine.
While Johnson arguably finished his career as a…

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Crossposted on Tikkun Daily
By Neil Hanson
I got some really excellent comments and feedback on the first article I did here on the stepped-up searches that airline passengers are now going through. To summarize, my premise is that we give up our dign…

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In a new episode of Big Coal Gone Wild last week, coal lobbyists announced their intentions to rebrand mountaintop removal mining as “mountaintop development.”
For besieged residents living near mountaintop removal sites in Appalachia&#8211…

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Written by Kenneth Katz for RHRealityCheck.org – News, commentary and community for reproductive health and justice.
On December 1, The New England Journal of Medicine published an article I wrote entitled “Health Hazards of ‘Don’t Ask, Don…

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So Judson Phillips, the president of the Tea Party Nation, believes that those who do not own land ought not be allowed to vote. Is this the 21st or the 19th century?
I have used a few catch phrases with which to capture my disdain for the Vox Populi a…

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Written by Kate Cockrill for RHRealityCheck.org – News, commentary and community for reproductive health and justice.
As I read Stephanie Herold and Aspen Baker’s comments in the Nation regarding the recent trend toward tweeting abortion, I cou…

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WikiLeaks may be the biggest information explosion this week, but Wednesday’s mammoth release of documents pertaining to the Fed’s bank bail out program could well spark the most outrage — at least among those not fortunate enough …

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The data from the Federal Reserve audit is full of frightening revelations about U.S. economic policy and those who implement it. When Wall Street went off the rails in the fall of 2008, policymakers told the public we had a certain kind of problem, kn…

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The proclamation was urged on him by the Sons of Confederate Veterans, which asserts that the Confederacy was a crusade for small government and states’ rights. The sesquicentennial, which coincides now with the rise of the Tea Party movement, is …

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So far, WikiLeaks have concentrated their efforts on U.S. foreign policy, from wars to diplomacy. Though little concrete action appears to have been taken in response to the leaks, their next target may spark a different reaction.
Bank of America shar…

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Crunched shoulder to shoulder on a cold bench in The Tombs, with the courtroom hundreds of feet above us on the surface of Manhattan, up there beyond the reach of these hundreds of African-American and Hispanic men.  Well, there was me, and then a cou…

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Corporate profits are up, especially in finance, and yet hiring and wages aren’t. No matter how much productivity spikes, wages stay stagnant. They haven’t budged. That means workers doing more work for less pay. So what’s a Democrati…

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Crossposted on Tikkun Daily
By Neil Hanson
The flap over the TSA searches of airline passengers highlights just how far we’ve fallen into the deep chasm of slavery to fear and the illusion of security.
I have zero doubt in my mind that the deep and…

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Written by Francis Kissling for RHRealityCheck.org – News, commentary and community for reproductive health and justice.
Last week’s published comments by Pope Benedict regarding the case by case permissibility of condom use to prevent the tran…

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The disagreement between the Southern Poverty Law Center and the new groups designated as anti-gay hate groups hit the Washington Post this week.
And while I am happy with the coverage, I am not happy with how these groups are trying to cover their tr…

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The US is the fattest of 33 countries says a recent report from the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development, a group that advises governments on economic growth, social development and financial stability. Mexico and New Zealand are next…

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Apparently some organizations who are on the Southern Poverty Law Center’s list and profiles of anti-gay hate groups aren’t happy about it and their spokespeople are addressing the issue.
But the venue that they chose to address SPLC’…

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Released on the eve of the December strategy review, the Pentagon’s latest “Report on Progress Toward Security and Stability in Afghanistan (.pdf)” shows that the insurgents’ momentum has not been broken, despite repeated claims…

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Every day, more and more people are willing to state the obvious: the Afghanistan War isn’t making us safer and it’s not worth the cost. Now the president is losing a powerful constituency on his Afghanistan policy: almost half of military …

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I am and have been transparent in my disdain towards Sarah Palin. She took stupid all the way to the bank; is a succubus of, and lightening road for, the worst sort of Right-wing populist know-nothing nonsense; and is an expert performer of a partic…

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As we huddle around our Thanksgiving dinner tables on Thursday, reflecting on the bounty of our nation, recently elected US Sen. Joe Manchin will have the choice to either break bread with West Virginia coal miners or dine at the table of the faltering…

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Originally posted at Cagle.
In just a few weeks, Republicans will take control of the U.S. House of Representatives for the first time since the 1994-midterm elections brought them to power after nearly half a century in exile.
The freshly minted major…

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For now, the groups (i.e. the American Family Association, the Family Research Council) just added by Southern Poverty Law Center to the list of anti-gay hate organizations seem to be silent on their new status.
But other folks aren’t.
Lgbt activ…

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‘Tis the season… for open enrollment.
Open enrollment is the annual window where you can sign up for valuable employee benefits such as a Flexible Spending Account (“FSA”). If you work for an employer offering this benefit, trust me.  You wa…

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The financial crisis in Ireland is leading to a political crisis on the heels of a bailout and more “austerity measures.” The coalition that currently rules is falling apart, the Green Party detaching from the prime minister’s Fianna Fail par…

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A Mighty Mobilization to Prevent a Democratic Cave-in is Underway
After the mid-term elections, the Obama Administration and some Democratic leaders signaled that they might compromise on extending the Bush-era tax breaks for wealthy households.  Comp…

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Real men, real human beings, with feelings and families, fought and died at Gettysburg to preserve the Union, to ensure, as their president, Abraham Lincoln, would say later, that “government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not pe…

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Yesterday, the Southern Poverty Law Center added five more groups to its list of anti-gay hate groups, including some names that are long overdue.
The new groups are:
1. American Family Association
2. Americans for Truth About Homosexuality
3. Dove W…

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As I said during the 2008 presidential campaign, I prefer my racism straight with no chaser. For this reason, I have often flirted with writing an Op-Ed simply called, “Why Limbaugh, Beck, Gingrich, Palin and the New Right Should Just Call Barack…

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There is this constant talking point, or rather whine, by many who are involved with conservative Christian groups (i.e. the religious right) that they are under attack by so-called “Godless forces of radicalism” or that they are unfairl…

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