Cuba on terror list, with twist by Lesley Clark WASHINGTON -- Cuba made the State Department's annual list of state sponsors of terrorism Thursday -- but with tempered language that may reflect an Obama administration interested in improving relations with Havana.Critics of U.S.-Cuba policy have championed the communist nation's removal from the list, saying it no longer meets the criteria. The other countries on the list: Iran, Syria and Sudan.
Around The Nation by Katrina vanden Heuvel The Nation did not take home a National Magazine Award this week. We were nominated in two categories: Naomi Klein for Columns & Commentary, and William Deresciewicz for Reviews & Criticism. The night was bittersweet, with smaller turnout than years past and real concern for the state of the industry, but also a diverse range of winners, including some "little magazines that could," demonstrating the continued value of investigative reporting and public interest journalism. We congratulate Bill; Naomi and all of the winners and nominees.
Kimberle Crenshaw for the Supreme Court by Melissa Harris-Lacewell It's the middle of the night after a very long day, so this will be a short entry. Exhaustion could keep me from weighing in briefly at this critical moment.With tonight's announcement that Justice Souter is retiring from the Supreme Court, it has suddenly become clear what the enduring act of President's Obama's next 100 days will be: the nomination of his first Supreme Court justice.
On Israeli Settlement Freeze, Public Has Obama's Back by Robert Naiman There have been hints in the press that the Obama Administration has been considering conditioning U.S. aid to Israel on a real freeze of Israeli settlement expansion in the West Bank. There's a conventional wisdom that suggests that doing this would touch a "third rail of politics." But the conventional wisdom might not have been accurate; if it once was accurate, it might not be accurate any more.
Banksters on the War Path: How Wall Street Is Fighting Back and Winning Their Fight for the Status Quo by Danny Schechter Dick Durbin knows his way around the Senate. He's been there a long time, long enough to know how things really work. Over the years, the man from Illinois has come to realize that it's not the elected officials who are in charge. Last week, he said it was the bankers "who run the place" acknowledging that Senators may be in office, but not necessarily in power.
Bhopal Residents Bring MIC Warnings by Rick Steelhammer CHARLESTON, W.Va. - Sarita Malviya wasn't born when an explosion at a Union Carbide chemical plant in Bhopal, India, on Dec. 3, 1984, sent a cloud of deadly gas containing the compound methyl isocyanate into the old section of the city, searing the lungs and causing the deaths of at least 4,000 people.
Joe Biden, the Flu and You by Gail Collins The swine flu scare has made it clear why Barack Obama picked Joe Biden for vice president. As the White House’s unfiltered talking head, Biden is the perfect warning bell to show the White House when things are veering out of control. A kind of mental canary in the governmental mine shaft.
Out of Touch by Bob Herbert The incredibly clueless stewards of the incredibly shrinking Republican Party would do well to recall that it was supposedly Abe Lincoln, a Republican, who said you can’t fool all of the people all of the time.Not only has the G.O.P. spent years trying to fool everybody in sight with its phony-baloney, dime-store philosophies, it’s now trapped in the patently pathetic phase of fooling itself.
