“Israel has published tenders for the construction of 1,761 illegal housing units for Israeli settlers in occupied East Jerusalem alone, according to the Israeli rights group Peace Now.”
The media slothfest at the DNC
“Only a small number of reporters actually have a reason to be here. The rest are conventioneering — seeing old friends, eating Democratic-themed menu items (”Barack Obama’s Turkey Chili”) in pandering local restaurants, brandishing their press passes at all comers, looking for free things, and spending about 14 percent of their time trying to rustle up enough stories to justify their presence to their editors.”
“Manufactured famine: How Europe is snatching food from the world’s poor”
“The same thing has happened in all the west African countries with which the EU has maintained fisheries agreements. In return for wretched amounts of foreign exchange, their primary source of protein has been looted.”
“Poverty is the real scandal”
“Former Sen. John Edwards was supposed to speak in Denver at the Democratic National Convention, but he had an affair. Will the Democrats now forget about his signature issue?”
Iraq contractor KBR sued for human trafficking
The corportation, formerly led by Dick Cheney, is accused of “engineering … in the human trafficking of Nepali workers” with its Jordanian subcontractor.
“Only a two-page ‘note’ governs US military in Afghanistan”
“For the past six years, military relations between the United States and Afghanistan have been governed by a two-page “diplomatic note” giving U.S. forces virtual carte blanche to conduct operations as they see fit.”
US relinquishes some presence in Iraq
“The top Marine Corps general said yesterday that the U.S. military will hand over security responsibilities to Iraqi forces next week in Iraq’s western province of Anbar, paving the way to reduce the 25,000-strong Marine contingent there and free up more Marines to go to Afghanistan.”
Ralph Nader: Media gives free pass on corporate issues for presidential candidates
“Since there is no challenging of the candidates by the reporters about what the candidates would do about this continual corporate crime wave and the miniscule prosecution budgets, or the limited enforcement and regulatory efforts, the candidates can remain mum, very mum.”
The BS of corporate voluntary codes
“When a company adopts and prominently touts its voluntary behavior codes, only to end up violating them, people start asking questions: What are the real reasons for these codes? Are they just for public relations (PR) purposes? To, as they say, ‘cover your a*s’ (CYA)? How did they arise? What, if any, value do they have? “
Iraqi gays persecuted by militants since US war
“As with a number of Muslim societies where homosexuality is officially nonexistent but widely practiced, the policy in Iraq during Saddam Hussein’s rule was “don’t ask, don’t tell.” But that has changed. Iraqi LGBT, the London NGO that Nadir works for, says more than 430 gay men have been murdered in Iraq since 2003. “