The APC Blog http://www.altpress.org/blog/theapcblog/index.php en-US webmaster@nothingness.org (Webmaster) http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses//3.0 Mon, 06 Sep 2010 19:00:02 -0400 Mon, 06 Sep 2010 19:00:02 -0400 Manifesto Social Security Survivor http://www.altpress.org/blog/theapcblog/display/148/index.php blog The APC Blog by Richard Eskow

AFSCME President Gerald W. McEntee suggests A new reality show starring the people who want to cut Social Security. He suggests having John Boehner, billionaire benefit-cut advocate Peter G. Peterson, and Deficit Commission chairs Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles live for a year on the average Social Security benefit of $14,000. MOre from Rickard Eskow…

Campaign for America's Future (8/3/2010)
http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/2010083103/come-down-its-time-play-social-security-survivor

]]> http://www.altpress.org/blog/theapcblog/display/148/index.php Sun, 08 Aug 2010 12:02:11 -0400 cdadamo@charm.net (cda) The APC Blog IMF-Greece http://www.altpress.org/blog/theapcblog/display/147/index.php blog The APC Blog
by Walden Bello

Promoted as rescuing Greece, the massive 110-billion-euro package, put together by the dominant Eurozone governments and the International Monetary Fund, will largely go toward rescuing the banks from their irresponsible, unregulated lending frenzy. Are there alternatives? Argentina's response in 2003 is one. Read more as Walden Bello analyzes the role of the banks and the IMF in Greece in context of North-South history since the 1980s.

Foreign Policy in Focus (7/14/2010)
http://www.fpif.org/articles/greece_same_tragedy_different_scripts

]]> http://www.altpress.org/blog/theapcblog/display/147/index.php Fri, 30 Jul 2010 10:18:20 -0400 cdadamo@charm.net (cda) The APC Blog Colombia-Venezuela http://www.altpress.org/blog/theapcblog/display/146/index.php blog The APC Blog by Mark Weisbrot

A process of South American diplomacy could resolve the Colombia-Venezuela dispute. Mark Weisbrot argues that the US should keep its distance.

The Guardian (7/28/10)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/jul/28/colombia-venezuela-washington-south-america
]]> http://www.altpress.org/blog/theapcblog/display/146/index.php Wed, 28 Jul 2010 22:50:22 -0400 cdadamo@charm.net (cda) The APC Blog Special Report: Israel Attacks Gaza-Bound Flotilla; World Responds. http://www.altpress.org/blog/theapcblog/display/145/index.php blog The APC Blog Gershom Gorenberg states in the American Prospect, “Activists who were on board say the Israeli commandos fired before being attacked; the Israeli military says the soldiers were defending themselves from a mob.” Either way, at least 9 people have been killed.

Esther Kaplan takes a look at the mainstream media’s coverage of the event, and it isn’t pretty. “In some cases, we saw misinformation and an almost gleeful boosterism,” Kaplan writes.

Was this really an act of nonviolence?

Were those aboard the Freedom Flotilla trying to enforce a negative public opinion of Israelis? Or were they just trying to bring humanitarian aid to the Gaza strip? Going back to the Prospect: “Before and after the raid, Israeli officials referred to the flotilla as a ‘provocation’ intended to harm Israel. That’s probably true — and only raises the question of why Israel allowed itself to be provoked.”

The Progressive’s Matthew Rothschild thinks otherwise. He states; “With this assault, Israel may finally have lost any hope of finding its moral compass or restoring its reputation. The invasion of Gaza seventeen months ago was a war crime. The embargo of Gaza is [also] a war crime—an act of collective punishment causing astronomical levels of poverty, malnutrition, and joblessness.”

While sifting through all the accounts of the Flotilla attack, it’s important to remember that we are only getting one perspective. But, as prisoners are slowly released, their testimonies reveal the other side of the story. As Seth Freed Wessler writes in RaceWire, “Those who have been released describe horrific treatment, and say that shots were fired from Israeli helicopters even before soldiers boarded the ships.”

For more information on the attack, visit the following links:

The world responds

Could the Flotilla incident be the last straw for relations between Israel and Turkey? According to Talking Points Memo, that could just be the case:

“Separate from everything to do with what happened in the water off Gaza yesterday, the implications for Israel’s relationship with Turkey seem profound and perhaps irremediable… This isn’t the first blow up in Israel-Turkey relations. Turkish opposition to the Gaza War (Operation Cast Lead) has been at the center of the dispute going back to 2008.”

The Southern blockade of the Gaza strip, which is maintained by Egypt and not Israel, was opened in response to the Flotilla incident, and new reports show that this section of the border may stay that way. Also from Talking Points Memo, “An Egyptian security source told Reuters: ‘Egypt opened its border with the Gaza Strip on Tuesday to allow humanitarian and medical aid to enter the Strip. The border will remain open for an unlimited time,’ the source said, letting Palestinians enter and leave Egypt.”

In the United States, a group of Nobel Peace Price winners joined together to condemn the attack, calling Israel’s three-year blockade of Gaza illegal under international law and “one of the world’s greatest human rights violations.” President Barack Obama’s signature was conspicuously absent from this document.

But, as Medea Benjamin writes for AlterNet, “President Obama is a constitutional lawyer. He must understand that the blockade of Gaza is illegal under international law. So is attacking civilian boats in international waters. The Israeli government must be held accountable for its actions. Global leaders, including its most revered members such as Nelson Mandela and Aung San Suu Kyi, have come out on the side of justice and law. So must President Obama.”

For more information on the international responses to this incident, visit the following links:


What will happen next?

Will such widespread disapproval of Israel’s action lead to the end of the blockade? Maybe this event will change relations between the U.S. and Israel. The Minnesota Independent reports that Teachers Against Occupation (TAO) released a statement saying, “Israel’s criminal actions cannot be permitted to continue. The United States directly supports Israeli atrocities with billions of dollars of military and economic aid every year. All of our Senators and Congressional representatives have supported this aid. This must stop. We call for an immediate end to U.S. ties to Israel.”

This post is a special report on the flotilla attack and features links to the best independent, progressive reporting by members of The Media Consortium. It is free to reprint. For more updates, follow us on < [...]]]> http://www.altpress.org/blog/theapcblog/display/145/index.php Wed, 02 Jun 2010 15:59:05 -0400 grahamstephenson@gmail.com (gs) The APC Blog Obama's Secretary of Interior, Public Sector Crisis, TV Food http://www.altpress.org/blog/theapcblog/display/144/index.php blog The APC Blog
By Billy Wharton

The time of big oil and coal energy was supposed to have faded with the election of Barack Obama to the presidency. Obama hailed the beginning of a new age of political sanity, where the US would be brought into line with global opinion about pressing issues such as carbon emissions and the transition to clean energy sources. But who did Obama select to be the new Secretary of the Department of the Interior. Ken Salazar. Read more…

Counterpunch (5/12/10)
http://counterpunch.org/wharton05122010.html


"How Do We Get Out of Here: Next Financial Crisis is in Public Services"
by Frédéric Lordon

Austerity is not the only way to make up for massive government debt and lack of revenue following self-induced disasters in private finance. There are fairer ways to balance the books. Short of radical transformation in the assumptions underlying international financial speculation, Frédéric Lordon examines various tax approaches.

Le Monde Diplomatique (March 2010)
http://mondediplo.com/2010/03/02financialreforms


"Sugar-coated: Jamie Oliver’s ‘Food Revolution’ Is Camera-Ready"
By Arun Gupta

There's talk about Jamie Oliver’s “Food Revolution” reality TV series airing on ABC. Olivier landed on America’s shores with the self-anointed mission to remake US eating habits for the better. Ground zero is Huntington, West Virginia, a city of 50,000 “recently named the unhealthiest city in America." But viewers are not supposed to know that Olivier is substituting high-end foodstuffs that normally grace three-star restaurants for the cheap, institutional fare dished out in public schools like West Virginia’s Central City Elementary School, the setting for the first two episodes. Read more…

The Indypendent (4/21/10)
http://www.indypendent.org/2010/04/21/sugar-coated/]]> http://www.altpress.org/blog/theapcblog/display/144/index.php Sun, 16 May 2010 13:24:46 -0400 cdadamo@charm.net (cda) The APC Blog