Obama Administration

‘Moneyball’: The Value of Reason

September 29, 2011
‘Moneyball’: The Value of Reason

Brad Pitt’s new movie, Moneyball, may be about baseball but it also raises larger questions about the importance of applying facts and rationality to achieve a successful outcome, a lesson that the American people might apply to their political judgments, writes Lisa Pease.

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Alice Walker Fights Anti-Palestinian Bias

September 28, 2011
Alice Walker Fights Anti-Palestinian Bias

Pulitzer-winning author Alice Walker sees a reflection of the injustice done to African-Americans in today’s treatment of the Palestinians, leading her to object when the artwork of Palestinian children is barred from U.S. museums and to join a flotilla that challenged Israel’s blockade of Gaza, as Dennis Bernstein reports.

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US Losing Sway in Af-Pak Region

September 27, 2011

Obama administration officials have been talking tough about Pakistan and its alleged support to militants who have crossed into Afghanistan to attack U.S. forces. But the reality is that Washington has little leverage left after a decade of failed wars, as Gareth Porter reports for the Inter Press Service.

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Will Rabbani Hit Derail Afghan Peace?

September 26, 2011

The U.S. government and media are outraged over the Taliban assassination of the Afghan High Peace Council’s chairman, but the attack should have been expected once the Obama administration and the Afghan government signaled a U.S. occupation extending more than a decade, reports Gareth Porter.

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Obama’s Hollow Words on Palestine

September 26, 2011

President Barack Obama struggled to explain his planned veto of UN recognition of a Palestinian state just a year after he welcomed the idea. His speech was a painful example of a leader knowing what is right and calculating that he can’t do what is right, notes Lawrence Davidson.

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The One Answer: Tax the Rich

September 26, 2011

Exclusive: When President Barack Obama suggested a minor adjustment in tax rates for the rich – to make sure they pay at least the same percentage as their employees – Republicans cried “class warfare.” But higher taxes on the rich may be the only way to rebuild the middle class, writes Robert Parry.

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In Case You Missed…

September 25, 2011

Some of our special stories in August explored stubborn conflicts raging from Libya to Afghanistan, reported on social upheavals within Western societies, reflected on the hypocrisy of Christian violence, and more.

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Obama’s Double Talk on Palestine

September 24, 2011

At the United Nations, President Barack Obama tried to square the circle of U.S. support for democracy and freedom across the Middle East with his threat to veto statehood for the Palestinians, a cause he championed just last year. In an open letter to the President, author Marc H. Ellis critiques Obama’s depressing double talk.

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Goodbye to International Law

September 22, 2011

Though the World War II victors promised that the Nuremberg principles would apply not just to the Nazis but to everyone, today’s reality is that international law follows two standards: a lenient one for the West and its friends and a stringent variant for adversaries. This hypocrisy is now being institutionalized, Lawrence Davidson notes.

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‘Pro-Life’ Government Kills Troy Davis

September 22, 2011

People around the world were gripped by the grim drama of Troy Davis’s execution by authorities in Georgia, after the state clemency board brushed aside grave doubts about his murder conviction and the U.S. Supreme Court rebuffed his final appeal. American peace activist David Swanson followed the ups and downs of those final hours.

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