When Nelson Mandela was a dedicated freedom-fighter against white-ruled South Africa, he was almost as much a “non-person” in the U.S. media as he was in South Africa’s press. Only after Mandela pulled back from demands about redistributing wealth was he…
Tag: Barack Obama
Hiding the Numbers on Gun Madness
Between the Right’s false history of the Second Amendment and the NRA’s lobbying clout, the American scandal of uncontrolled firearms and their use in mass slayings continues unabated. The gun madness has even prevented law enforcement from quantifying the crisis,…
The Slippery Slope into Syrian War
The neocons and much of the mainstream U.S. news media are eager for another U.S.-sponsored “regime change” in the Middle East this time in Syria and President Obama has acquiesced to shipping guns to the rebels. But this slippery slope…
Supreme Court’s War on Democracy
Exclusive: The U.S. Supreme Court’s right-wing majority is a serial killer of American democracy first Bush v. Gore, then Citizens United, now gutting the Voting Rights Act but another part of this crime story is the Right’s grotesque last stand for white…
Snowden’s Case for Asylum
Despite U.S. government pressure, Russian President Vladimir Putin is balking at demands that he extradite Edward Snowden from Moscow to face espionage charges for leaking secrets about America’s global surveillance operations. Still, Snowden’s status remains dicey, as Marjorie Cohn explains…
America’s Informant Society
During World War II, the U.S. military and public were told “loose lips sink ships,” perhaps a worthy wartime reminder. But the seemingly endless “war on terror” has made government hostility to openness part of America’s permanent wartime mentality, a…
Israel’s Quiet Strategy of Conquest
While paying lip service to a two-state solution, some Israeli officials bluntly acknowledge that their goal is to repress the Palestinians and eventually absorb most of the West Bank into a Greater Israel. This strategy anticipates the continued acquiescence of…
The IRS Non-Scandal ‘Scandal’
The IRS “scandal” stampeded Official Washington, including much of the mainstream press which portrayed the Tea Party as the “victim” of partisan abuse. But the dust has finally cleared and it appears there never was a “scandal,” just a clunky…
The Right’s Dubious Claim to Madison
Special Report: James Madison, so-called “father of the Constitution” and fourth U.S. president, is at the center of a historical debate over what the original intent of the Framers was and whether a strong federal government fits with those principles. The…
Cables Hold Clues to US-Iran Mysteries
From the Archive: Iran’s election of Hassan Rowhani as president has raised hopes for a deal, with Iran accepting tighter constraints on its nuclear program and the West rolling back sanctions. But there has been a long and often secret…