If You Want Change, You Have to Change Congress

We should remember what it felt like one year ago, as the ability to recall it emotionally will pass and it is an emotional memory as much as anything else. It was a moment rare in a democracy's history. The feeling was palpable--to supporters and opponents alike--that something important had happened. America had elected, the young candidate promised, a transformational president. And wrapped in a campaign that had produc… Continue

According to the World Health Organisation, gender-based violence is a major public health and human rights problem throughout the world. Though the assault is carried on in the privacy of the home, the violation is widely seen as a "private" family affair, and for some - a normal part of life.

In Kenya, an estimated 49% of married women were physically abused by their husbands (Borwankar et. al, 2008). Though violence against women mainly occurs in the form of physical and sexual assault; it t… Continue

Democracy allocates one vote to each eligible individual. Equality may be implied but in our form of representative democracy, inequality is guaranteed. Each individual vote is not of equal value.

There are but two truths about democracy. The first is the widespread delusion amongst the poor that we have one. The second is the chronic terror amongst the rich lest we get one.(1)

Gerrymandering of districts within the various states assures some 95% retention of incumbent seats in the House. Sev… Continue

When asked what he thought of Western civilization, Mahatma Gandhi said, “I think it would be a good idea.” Much of the world’s envy towards the West comes from the misdirection and fear projected from the West by its’ deeds. These deeds are influenced by a collection of shared human needs and values. Philippe Nemo, Professor of Philosophy and the History of Political Ideas at the European School of Management, in his penetrating book, What is the West, questions “whether certain values i… Continue

by Ice Goldberg
June 22nd, 2009

”In fifty years –a single lifetime– the earth has been more radically changed than by all previous generations of humanity” [1]. Taken lightly, total ecological devastation could effectively arrive this century in the form of climate change due to –putting it simply– the global mismanagement of resources. It may even be too late to mitigate if we cannot come to some consensus in short order.

Today’s scientific community has reached a strong consensus regarding t… Continue

Is today's media built for these times? Is it capable of covering the widespread economic downturn in a way that conveys the pain so many Americans are feeling to the country and the world? And can it be done in a way that doesn't feel like a view of devastation from 30,000 feet up in the air? For insight, we turned to a man who is built to cover this crisis, Pulitzer-Prize-winning author and Columbia School of Journalism professor… Continue

"the need for a new kind of debate, one that is not limited to isolated issues such as health care, but is more broad-based and fundamental, a debate about how power, inequality and money constrict the educational, economic and political conditions that make democracy possible"

Thursday 01 October 2009

by: Henry A. Giroux, t r u t h o u t | Perspective

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An Outstanding Overview by Fred Magdoff and Brian Tokar Originally published in the Monthly Review - An Independent Socialist Magazine
Purchase a hardcopy HERE

“Could Food Shortages Bring Down Civilization?,” asks the title of an article by Lester Brown in Scienti

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Jun 15th 2006 From The Economist print edition

The world's most impressive economic machine needs a little adjusting

MORE than any other country, America defines itself by a collective dream: the dream of economic opportunity and upward mobility. Its proudest boast is that it offers a chance of the good life to everybody who is willing to work hard and play by the rules. This ideal has made the United States the world's strongest magnet for immigrants; it has also reconciled ordinary Am… Continue

By Ralph Nader

Ever wonder what's happening to words once they fall into the hands of corporate and government propagandists? Too often reporters and editors don't wonder enough. They ditto the words even when the result is deception or doubletalk.

Here are some examples. Day in and day out we read about “detainees” imprisoned for months or years by the federal government in the U.S., Guantanamo Bay, Iraq and Afghanistan. Doesn't the media know that the correct word is “prisoners,” regardless… Continue