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Today's
Stories
December 11, 2008
P. Sainath
After Mumbai
December 10, 2008
Ismael Hossein-Zadeh
Whose Interests Will Shape Obama's Change?
Mary Lynn Cramer
The Multi-Trillion Dollar Question
Manuel Garcia, Jr.
Nuclear Weapons Obsolescence
Joshua Frank
Breaking the Stranglehold on Middle East News Coverage
Jack Ely
Stop Sobbing About Free Music Downloads: a Message to the Music Industry from the Lead Singer of the Kingsmen
Steve Conn
An Obama Public Works Program?
Lee Sustar
Republic Workers Target Bank of America
Glen Ford
The Die is Cast
Stephen Lendman
The Persecution of Syed Fahad Hashmi
Nadia Hijab
The Face of America
Dave Lindorff
We All Need a Union
Website of the Day
This One's For You, Senator Dodd
December 9, 2008
Mike Whitney
Card Check
Fawzia Afzal-Khan
Us vs. Them
Ghada Karmi
The UN Resolution That Time Forgot
Dave Lindorff
A Car Dealer Explains Why the Bailout is a Raw Deal
Steve Breyman
Notes on a Green Economy: Managing Stuff in the 21st Century
Lee Sustar /
Nicole Colson
Raising the Stakes at Republic
Rev. William E. Alberts
God of Our Fathers
Martha Rosenberg
Bill Richardson: Secretary of Bloodsports
Sam Husseini
How Holbrooke Lied His Way Into a War
David Macaray
The UAW in Peril
Website of the Day
This Toxic Life
December 8, 2008
Steve Early
Is Obama Backing Off a Crucial Pledge to Labor?
Michael Hudson
Obama's Favoritism: Wall Street, Not the Auto Industry
Patrick Cockburn
Talking to a Lashkar Militant
Diane Farsetta
An Officer and a Conflicted Man: McCaffery, the Pentagon and Fleishman-Hillard
Paul Craig Roberts
Chapters in Imperial Hypocrisy
Daniel Gross
The Chicago Sit-Down Strike
Saul Landau
To Bail or Not to Bail?
Harvey Wasserman
Why John Bryson is Unfit for Energy Secretary
Mike Ferner
The New Generation of "Non-Lethal" Weapons
Norman Solomon
The Silent Winter of Escalation
David Michael Green
The Other Foot
Website of the Day
The Remains of Detroit
December 5 / 7, 2008
Alexander Cockburn
Honeymoans From the Left
Brian Cloughley
Shambles in Afghanistan
Paul Craig Roberts
Muslim Revolution: How Washington Arrogance Helped Drive the Mumbai Attacks
Liaquat Ali Khan
Mumbai and the Kashmir Tinderbox
Farzana Versey
Mumbai's Charge of the Lightweight Brigade
Peter Lee
Pakistan Nears the Breaking Point
Peter Morici
Slouching Toward a Depression?
Ralph Nader /
Toby Heaps
Junk Cap-and-Trade
Yinon Cohen /
Neve Gordon
Obama Could End the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Will He Meet the Challenge?
Wajahat Ali
Perverse Justice: the Holy Land Foundation Convictions
Johnny Barber
Aswad's Story:
Illegal Detention and the Declaration of Human Rights
Alan Farago
Fallout from the Pass-Through Economy
Jeremy Scahill
Obama Doesn't Plan to End Occupation of Iraq
Mike Whitney
Powergrab in Ottawa
Ranjit Hoskote
Jahiliyya Versus Jihad
Carl Finamore
Thank God I'm an Atheist! (Or Boy is Bill O'Reilly in for a Big Surprise)
Marjorie Cohn
Obama and Women's Rights
Norm Kent
Tommy Chong, the Unanticipated Warrior
Missy Beattie
What Lies Ahead
Binoy Kampmark
Committing Suicide On-Line: the Briggs Case
David Macaray
The Best and the Brightest Redux: Too Many Brains, Not Enough Humility
Nancy Stohlman
Relational Activism
Ron Jacobs
Irreverent Politics Then and Now
David Yearsley
Thematics From the Golden Past
Lorenzo Wolff
Troubled Songs of Home and War
Poets' Basement
Orloski: The Door Opener
Website of the Weekend
In Prison My Whole Life
December 4, 2008
Ece Temelkuran
Inside the Ergenekon Case
Ralph Nader
Turning Crisis into Opportunity: Who Will Seize the Moment?
Harry Browne
The Bush-Obama National Security Strategy
Eamonn Fingleton
The American Car Industry: a Riposte to the Knockers
Conn Hallinan
The Syria Attack
Mike Whitney
Fiasco in Somalia: Another CIA Cock-Up
Stewart J. Lawrence
Obama and Latinos: Richardson, Alone, is Not Enough
Paul Fitzgerald /
Elizabeth Gould
Message to Obama: Stop Killing Afghanis
Karyn Strickler
Show Us the Green, Before We Show You the Money
Jennifer Matsui
Obama-Cola: the Great National Temperance Beverage
Website of the Day
"He Ain't Got Laid in a Month of Sundays..."
December 3, 2008
Andrew Cockburn
What's Wrong with the U.S. Military
Sheldon Rampton
Mormon Homophobia: Up Close and Personal
Robert Weissman
Nationalize GM
Yifat Susskind
From Mumbai to Washington
William Blum
The Obama Bummer:
Vote First, Ask Questions Later
Alan Singer
The Ghost of the Defunct Economist
David Macaray
Trampled Under Foot at Wal-Mart
Martha Rosenberg
Born With a Statin Deficiency? Line Forms to the Left!
Mats Svensson
The Crimes Have No Period of Limitations
Website of the Day
Why Bill Richardson's Nomination Should be Opposed
December 2, 2008
Jeremy Scahill
Obama's Kettle of Hawks
Paul Craig Roberts
The New Arms Race
Ayesha Ijaz Khan
The Mumbai Terror Attacks: Is Pakistan to Blame?
Sarah Anderson /
John Cavanagh
Skewed Priorities: How the Bailout Dwarfs Spending on Other Global Crises
William Blum
The Mythology of the War on Terrorism
John Ross
Mexico's Drug War Goes Down in Flames
Dave Lindorff
A Tale of Two Terror Attacks
Nicola Nasser
A Peace Process That Makes Peace Impossible
Steve Conn
Operation Redskin Removal
Robert Bryce
Coal Hard Facts
Website of the Day
Country, Funk, Soul
December 1, 2008
Patrick Cockburn
From Baghdad to Mumbai, by Way of Pakistan
Damien Millet /
Eric Toussaint
Obama's Economic Team:
Records of Failure
Vijay Prashad
The Fires in South Asia
Deepak Tripathi
Obama's Foreign Crises
Joshua Frank
Madam Secretary Clinton and the Middle East
P. Sainath
The Unlikely Martyrdom of Free Market Jihad
Alan Farago
The Right's War on Regulators
Binoy Kampmark
Sydney's Ball and Chain
Chris Genovali
Silent Fall
David Michael Green
Hope You Die Before You Get Old
Stephen Martin
The Chinese are Coming, the Chinese are Coming!
Website of the Day
Robert Rubin: Coward, Liar or Both?
November 28-30, 2008
Alexander Cockburn
In Time of Trouble
Mike Whitney
The Obama "Dream Team": Rubin Clones and Other Fakers
Ted Honderich
What is the Meaning of Obama's Election?
Tom Kerr
Preserving Filthy Lucre (Or Becoming My Dad)
Mike Ely
The Conquest of New England
David Yearsley
Hymns of the Conquest
Deepak Tripathi
Uproar in Police-State Britain
Sonja Karkar
Gaza's Death Throes
Ramzy Baroud
Salvation in a News Broadcast
Robert Weitzel
Israel's Settlement on Capitol Hill
Robert Roth
Can We Create a Movement for Change?
Carlos Fierro
Obama and the End of Racism?
David Macaray
How to Kill a Union
David Rosen
A New Sexual Agenda
James Cockcroft
Indigenous People Rising
Stan Cox
The Most Disappointing Gift
Steve Conn
Talking Turkey About College Basketball
Stephen Martin
The Electromagnetic Pulse and Economic Warfare
Richard Rhames
Busty Bimbettes, Bombs and Brand Obama
Kim Nicolini
Women as Products and Cannibalistic Achievers
Lorenzo Wolff
A Battle Cry for the Confused and Vulnerable
Poets' Basement
Woods, Harrison and Corseri
November 27, 2008
Tariq Ali
The Assault on Mumbai
Steve Hendricks
Thanksgiving We Can Believe In: Justice in Indian Country
Ralph Nader
Open Up Those Corporate Tax Returns
John Walsh
The Root Cause of the Crisis of 2008
Dave Lindorff
The Department of Homeland Lunacy
Christopher Brauchli
Thanks A Lot, Mr. Meese: How Alberto Gonzales Learned to Get You to Pay for His Legal Bills
Matthew Koehler
Giving Thanks for Burned Forests
Website of the Day
John Trudell: "Crazy Horse We Hear What You Say"
November 26, 2008
Michael Hudson
The Obama Letdown
Alan Farago
Bailouts and the New Math
Stanley Heller
Don't Bail Them Out, Take Them Over
Kevin Zeese
The Real Cost of the Bailout
Steve Conn
Now It Can Be Told (Except in North Carolina)
Ray McGovern
Kafka and Uighurs at Guantánamo
Ron Jacobs
King George is Gone: Now It's Time to Organize
Eric Walberg
Obama's Odious Entourage
Martha Rosenberg
Pay No Attention to That Turkey Being Slaughtered (Or How Sarah Palin Created a Whole New Generation of Vegetarians)
Matt Siegfried
Back to the Future With Barack
Website of the Day
"Every Time I've Compromised, I've Lost"
November 25, 2008
James Abourezk
Of Arrogance, Bailouts and the Big Three
Ralph Nader
Don't Suppress Carter
Patrick Irelan
PBS Reports for Big Oil on Venezuela
John Ross
Obama in Bedlam
Fred Gardner
Dr. Goodwin and the Infinite Con
Dan LaBotz
The Auto Crisis: a Big Caravan to Washington?
Tom Barry
Napolitano and Immigration Policy
Norman Solomon
The Ideology of No Ideology
Richard Morse
Memo From Haiti:
Where the Culture of Corruption Meets the Corruption of Culture
Chris Strohm
The Missing Rules of Engagement in Cyberwar
Website of the Day
Green vs. Green?
November 24, 2008
Mike Whitney
You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet
Pam Martens
The Rise and Fall of Citigroup
Laray Polk
Bush's Library: the Kurds, Oil and Missing Records
David Ker Thomson
American Friends: With Friends Like These, Who Needs Canadians?
Uri Avnery
Likud Rising
Joe Mowrey
Deprivation and Desperation in Gaza
Ramzi Kysia
An Administration in Search of a Progressive:
the Team Obama Should Have Picked
Kevin Zeese
The Causes of the Auto Crisis
Dave Lindorff
Rescuing the Blob:
Idiots and Bailouts
David Macaray
Seven Reasons You Should Join a Union
Howard Lisnoff
Inaugurations Past and Present
Website of the Day
I Hate the Beatles
November 21 / 23, 2008
Alexander Cockburn
The Honeymoon is Looking a Bit Wan
Michael Hudson
Paulson's Cascade of Lies
Mike Whitney
Time to Move to Plan B ... If There is One
Barbara Rose Johnston /
Holly M. Barker
Cautionary Tales From a Nuclear War Zone
Serge Halimi
The Gloom of Empire: Downhill All the Way
Alan Farago
The Suburbs March On
Ralph Nader
Changing With Retreads: the Third Clinton Administration
Saul Landau
When Old Axioms Don't Apply
Robert Bryce
From LBJ to Obama: the End of Texas Dominance
Shannon May
Ecological Crisis and Eco-Villages in China
Binoy Kampmark
The End of the Yugo
Jack Ely
The Fate of the West's Wild Horses
Ramzy Baroud
The Rights of Women in War Zones
Missy Beattie
Why Vote, Anyway?
Larry Portis
Women Soldiers Serving in (and Barely Surviving) the Israeli Army
James McEnteer
Colombia's Laboratory of Failure
Christopher Brauchli
A Tale of Two Whales
David Yearsley
Real
Swords, Fire and Don Giovanni
Adam Engel
Power Down
Ron Jacobs
The Continuing Saga of the White Album
Lorenzo Wolff
Honky Tonk Heroes:
When Country Got Real
Poets' Basement
Raza Ali Hasan
Website of the Weekend
Lips and Fingers
November 20, 2008
P. Sainath
The Jurassic Auto and Idea Park
Brian McKenna
How Dow Chemical Defies Homeland Security and Risks Another 9/11
Paul Craig Roberts
What Uncle Sam Has to Say to His Creditors
Andy Worthington
How Guanántamo Can be Closed
Peter Lee
India Doubles Down in Afghanistan ... Maybe
Dr. Eyad al-Serraj
At the Erez Crossing
Sen. Russ Feingold
The Bush Pardons
Lance Selfa
Who Made the New Deal?
Ray McGovern
Keeping Gates
Benjamin G. Davis
Ending Torture; Prosecuting the Torturers
Tracy McLellan
Obama's Crony Democracy: the Return of Tom Daschle
Website of the Day
Finally, a Victory for Palestinians
November 19, 2008
M. Shahid Alam
Obama and the Politics of Race and Religion in America
Mario A. Murillo
Holder, Chiquita and Colombian Death Squads
Martine Boulard
Escaping the Dollar's Shadow
Robin D. G. Kelley
Will Obama be the First "Freedom" Democrat?
Behrooz Ghamari-Tabrizi
Obama and the Iron Cage
Jonathan Cook
Who Will Stop the Settlers?
Steve Conn
Spare Change or No Change at All
George Wuerthner
The NYT and the Beetles of Mass Destruction
Michael Winship
This Just in From Middle Earth
Stephen Martin
The Other Side of the Pleasure-Dome
Website of the Day
An Important Holiday Message From Kristen Johnston
November 18, 2008
Chellis Glendinning
Cheering for Morgan Stanley
George C. Wilson
Perils of Pakistan: Will It Prove to be Obama's Cambodia?
Franklin Lamb
Who Will Evict Israel from Lebanon: Hezbollah or the UN?
Bill and Kathleen Christison
The Irresponsibility of Appointing Hillary Clinton Secretary of State
Roger Burbach
Orchestrating a Civic Coup in Bolivia: How Bush Tried to Bring Down Morales
John Ross
Drilling vs. Direct Democracy in Mexico
Wajahat Ali
Is Obama the Muslim World's Superman?
Damien Millet /
Eric Toussaint
What Really Happened in Washington? The G20 and the Inconsistent Script
Marc Gardner
When Mooning is a Sex Crime
Eric Walberg
Courting the Bear: a New Era for Russian/Western Relations?
Wendy Williams
The Bottled Water Con
Website of the Day
Where's Zappa When We Need Him?
November 17, 2008
Michael Hudson
Bankers Shake Down Congress and the G-20
Paul Craig Roberts
When It's a Clear Day and You Can't See GM
Mike Whitney
Busted in Washington
Steve Conn
Where is Nader Country 2008? Mapping the Nader Votes
Andy Worthington
Closing Guantánamo: Advice for Obama
Jonathan Cook
The Real Goal of Israel's Blockade of Gaza: "They Are All Hamas"
Rannie Amiri
Dual Loyalties Will Doom Obama
David Macaray
Bailing Out the Automakers
David Michael Green
Twelve Victories
Charles Modiano
Sports Illustrated and Sexism: Tokenism or a New Day?
Website of the Day
The South Sea Bubble
November 14 / 16, 2008
Alexander Cockburn
Heading for the First Hundred Days
Jeffrey St. Clair
How Bill Clinton Doomed the Spotted Owl: a Cautionary Tale for Greens in the Age of Obama
Mike Whitney
Paulson the Bungler
Sasan Fayazmanesh
RIP: the Experts, 1929-2008
Moshe Adler
Keynes:
China's Greatest Export?
Anthony DiMaggio
Transcending Race?
Jean Bricmont
Cats, Dogs and Creationism
Sheldon Rampton
The Eisenstadt Hoax: a Real Life Example of a "Fake Fake"
Douglas Valentine
Let the Trials Begin!
Joseph Nevins /
Timothy Dunn
Barricading the Border
Tom Barry
Rahm Emanuel's Political Pragmatism on Immigration
Ron Jacobs
Che Guevara Meets Trashman: the Genius of Spain Rodriguez
Larry Portis
The State of the Israeli State
Mary Lynn Cramer Obama's Brain Trust: Seems Like Old Times
Sherry Wolf
The Myth of the Black/Gay Divide
Peter Cervantes-Gautschi
Secretary of Greed: How Larry Summers Championed Wall Street by Impoverishing the Mexican People
Jacob Hornberger
The Conservative Malaise: Hey, Brother, Can You Spare Some Habeas Corpus?
Lance Selfa
The Center-Right Nation Con
Benjamin Dangl
Vermont Against General Dynamics
Seth Sandronsky
Lifelines in Hard Times
Russell Mokhiber
Time to Give the Friends of Big Coal the Boot
Allan Stellar
Nuke a Gay Whale for the Navy
Kelly Overton
Get Thee to a Shelter:
the Obamas and the Million-Mutt March
Martha Rosenberg
Why Mink are Cheering the Economic Crisis
Richard Rhames
Palling Around with Ray the Plumber
David Yearsley
How I Played Hooky from "High School Musical 3"
Lorenzo Wolff
Zach is Back: Songs of Hurt, Rage and Resistance
Poets' Basement
Gibbons, Ford and Buknatski
Website of the Weekend
The Eyes Have It
November 13, 2008
Pam Martens
The Two Trillion DollarBlack Hole
Vijay Prashad
Guilt by Participation: Sonal Shah's Membership Has Expired
Patrick Cockburn
Who is Paying for the Iraqi National Intelligence Service?
Jonathan Cook
The Withering Palestinian Economy
Ralph Nader
Obama and the Rogue Regime
Bill Quigley
McCain Owes America an Apology
Lee Sustar
Bailing Out the Big Three
Omar Barghouti
Boycotting Israeli Settlement Products
Steve Conn
More Alaska Fun
Howard Lisnoff
The Last Bastion of Hate
Jeff Cohen
What Indy Media Heroes Can Teach Us
Website of the Day
Who are the Obamagelicals?
November 12, 2008
Johanna Berrigan
Scattered Families: the Iraq Refugee Crisis
Steve Conn
The Big Mystery Election in Alaska
Patrick Bond
Against Volcker
Bokar Ture /
Dedrick Muhammad
Remembering a Black Radical in a Barack Obama America
Alan Farago
The Hispanic Vote in South Florida: Not Dyed Blue Yet
Dave Lindorff
Rescuing Joe Lieberman
Karl Grossman
Break Up Big Oil: Tyranny in the Tank
David Macaray
An Obama Litmus Test: Will Labor Have a Seat at the Table?
George Wuerthner
Act Now to Save America's Public Forests
Susie Day
Heavy Weather
Website of the Day
Does the Planet Have a Future? an Interview with Derrick Jensen
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December 11, 2008
The Undying Obsession with Black Family Values
Post-Racial Racism at the Post
By DEDRICK MUHAMMAD
As we come closer to the "post-racial age" of a Barack Obama presidency, I am intrigued to find that post-racial racism is already being propagated in the pages of the Washington Post. In "An Enduring Crisis for the Black Family," Kay Hymowitz blames the economic disfranchisement of African Americans upon the personal behavior of Black people and the silence of Black leaders concerning this behavior. Ms. Hymowitz portrays the massive national growth of single parent homes as a Black pathology. She uses the real challenge of the breakdown in the traditional family to further stereotype and lay blame on African Americans for racial inequality in this country.
As one who studies racial inequality and the African American condition in particular, I have often been told to ignore the studies that show there is still racial prejudice in employment, homeownership, and predatory lending, and to instead look at the rapid decline of two parent households for African Americans. In the report "40 Years Later: The Unrealized American," I looked at the decline of the two parent household for Blacks and whites and found some surprising results. Using data from the 2007 State of Our Unions report I discovered that the share of Black children living in a single parent home increased by 155% between 1960 to 2006. The share of white children living in single parent homes increased by 229% during this same time period. The white two-parent family has declined at a faster rate than the Black family. Yet, Ms. Hymowitz never once mentions that the increase of single parent Black families exist in a context of an even greater rate of increase in single parent white families. Ms. Hymowitz attacks Black leaders for not addressing this issue yet as a white woman she never sees fit to mention this issue as it relates to white Americans.
Was Ms. Hymowitz so concerned about the African American community that she failed to consider that Blacks were part of a national social trend that was cutting across racial lines? I do not know. What I do know is that she is a fellow at the Manhattan Institute, an organization with a history of concluding that the "deficiencies" of African Americans are the primary cause of inequality. Charles Murray, formerly of the Manhattan Institute, is the most renown example of this tradition. In 1994 he co-wrote the book "The Bell Curve." This best selling book argued that Black/white inequality could be explained by the inferior intelligence of African Americans.
Ms. Hymowitz's charge that civil rights leaders historically and today remain silent on the topic of Black family and single parent households is as misleading as her portrayal of the break up of the family. Growing up in the 1980's, I remember listening to Rev. Jackson as he urged Black men to stand up to their responsibilities as fathers. In 1995 I was proud to participate in the Million Man March, the largest Black gathering this country has ever seen. Over a million Black men came together to pledge greater responsibility for their families and to atone for their sins. The Black community and its leaders have always engaged the issue of greater self-responsibility. One can look back to Garvey, Dubois, Fredrick Douglass and Harriet Tubman for this tradition.
In his book "Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community," Dr. King stated "History continues to mock the Negro today, because just as he needs ever greater family integrity, severe strains are assailing family life in the white community." Someone seriously concerned about the decline of the two-parent family would not racialize a serious national problem. They would, instead, challenge the nation to address this problem in unity. Rev. Jesse Jackson, who grew up in a single parent home, stated in 1988 that "Protecting America's families is not simply a problem of the poor. It is a challenge to the entire society, a practical as well as moral challenge." Jackson proposed a Family Investment Initiative, an initiative that would go beyond talking about family values and instead place societies' resources behind valuing families. As we approach the inauguration of Barack Obama, we look to the President Elect to enact legislation and inspire a national commitment to strengthen all American families, and to bridge the racial divide that for too long has divided this nation.
Dedrick Muhammad works for the Institute for Policy Studies as part of the Program on Inequality and the Common Good.
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