Category: Human Rights

The Ideology of Ecocide

The U.S. Constitution mandates the federal government to provide for the country’s “general Welfare,” but the Right’s self-proclaimed “constitutionalists” object to any efforts to curb the catastrophic threat of global warming, as Lawrence Davidson notes.

Fear in a Handful of Dust

The Grand Irony may be that Earth is the only spot in the Universe where intelligent life evolved, and it then made the Earth unlivable, the ultimate crisis in an age of an ossified order that poet Phil Rockstroh addresses.

Cop’s History an Issue in Toy-Gun Slaying

By all accounts, Andy Lopez was a good-hearted boy with a bright future until the 13-year-old was confronted by a police deputy who told him to drop a toy gun and then felled him with a deadly fusillade, a case that has…

Who Controls US Foreign Policy?

Exclusive: The new Saudi-Israeli alliance wants to drag the U.S. government — and military — into the region’s Sunni-Shiite sectarian conflict by sabotaging negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program and the Syrian civil war, reports Robert Parry.

NSA Spying’s Economic Fallout

Many Americans were shocked at Edward Snowden’s leaks about the extent of the U.S. government’s electronic surveillance but another downside is that people around the world are now bailing out on U.S.-based Internet companies, as best they can, writes Sander…

Peace Options on Iran

For decades, the default ideology of Official Washington’s foreign policy has been “tough-guy-ism,” wielding sticks and mocking those who offer carrots, a pattern that could start a disastrous war with Iran, say Tom H. Hastings and Erin E. Niemela.

Israel’s Troubling Walls

The Israeli government is planning to build more and more walls to keep Palestinians and Arabs out of Jewish-held territory, a troubling twist on a dark history when walls were used to lock Jews in, Lawrence Davidson observes.

America’s Real-Life ‘Hunger Games’

Congressional Republicans are eager to ladle more subsidies onto agribusinesses while slashing, if not eliminating, food stamps for the poor, a twisted version of America’s own “Hunger Games,” writes Michael Winship.

The Case for a Higher Minimum Wage

The Tea Party claims to represent average Americans but its anti-government zealotry lines up with the interests of big-business elites, such as opposition to an increased minimum wage, a plan that would help millions of average Americans, writes Lawrence S.…

Will NSA Reforms Protect Citizens?

Exclusive: Common citizens around the world may be alarmed at the NSA’s electronic dragnet prying into their personal lives, but reforms may focus mostly on the privacy of government leaders and corporate executives, writes Andrés Cala.