Puppet Masters
"But the most interesting resistance happening right now is going on in Quebec, Canada. There are, according to one representative report, over 165,000 students on strike from class out of a 495,000 student body.
Quebec is looking to increase their tuition 75% over the next several years; students responded by starting what is now the longest strike in the province's history. It's gone on even though the government has offered to make student loans a nicer, kinder form of debt, with income-contingent repayments while not budging on the tuition hikes...
The campus combines several issues into one - the privatization of public services, the dismembering of social insurance and its replacement with a regime of debt and risk-shifting, the dismantling of the primary means of social mobility with one designed to entrench inequality, which all builds towards a lack of freedom to fully develop ones talents and abilities and be full, productive citizens.
These students are right to fight this battle at the beginning, during the initials cuts. Privatization creates its own justification; the more public universities are defunded and reconceived as a private good, the less civic interest there is in defending them as a public good. And they are also fighting at the beginning of their lives, both for what kind of world they want to live in while resisting the constraints of indenture that we see when this process of privatization and debt reaches its ultimate conclusion - a path the United States is much further along."
The Quebec Students Strike - Rorty
A traveller's sobs were left ignored this weekend, as she was subjected to an invasive pat-down despite her cries - in another blow to the TSA.
A video posted to YouTube captures the weeping woman's ordeal during the security checkpoint at an airport in Madison, Wisconsin.
Jim Hoft, who runs the political blog Gateway Pundit, posted the video on the site, as well as YouTube yesterday.
Mr Hoft wrote: 'This morning at a Midwest airport I witnessed this poor woman suffering through this horrible sexual violation'.
It's the latest in a long line of disturbing behaviour during security checkpoints.
Loud sobs can be heard as the woman, wearing a pink sweater, is patted down by a female TSA agent.
The woman's hands are shaking as the agent moves her hands down the woman's legs. The woman is then left alone, and can be seen hunching over, her arms crossed across her body in humiliation.
Lieutenant-Colonel Shalom Eisner is seen ramming his M-16, with both hands, into Danish national Andreas Ias's face as activists took part in a bicycle rally in the occupied West Bank. The incident took place on Saturday 14th April 2012 in the Jordan Valley, near Jericho, where several dozen activists - Palestinian and international - had joined a protest bicycle ride.
They say their planned route was blocked by Israeli soldiers who told them to turn back for their own safety.
The video from Saturday's incident shows him falling to the ground and then being carried away by activists.
© Daniele Mascolo/EPA
Imane Fadil alleged in court that one of the women dressed as nun was Nicole Minetti, a former TV showgirl now regional councillor for Silvio Berlusconi's party.
Imane Fadil alleged in court that one of the women dressed as nun was Nicole Minetti, a former TV showgirl now regional councillor for Silvio Berlusconi's party.
Moroccan Imane Fadil, 27, told the court she watched as two young women donned black habits and crucifixes to perform a pole dance before stripping to their underwear. At another party, a Brazilian model wearing a mask of the footballer Ronaldinho and an AC Milan shirt stripped to her G-string.
Fadil is one of at least three women who have come forward to deny Berlusconi's claims that his "bunga bunga" parties at his mansion outside Milan in 2010 were more than just "elegant dinners".
Shocked at what she saw at her first party, Fadil said Berlusconi took her into his office and handed her a watch, earrings and €2,000 (£1,650) in an envelope, stating: "Don't be offended, but I know you women are always in need."
Fadil said she declined to stay the night, and claimed the women who did were paid more for sex. "The girls complained they were afraid of diseases," she said. "But they all competed to stay because whoever stayed earned a lot more."
The nights, she said, were arranged by Nicole Minetti, a former TV showgirl now regional councillor for Berlusconi's party - who was one of those allegedly dressed as a nun - and Emilio Fede, a former newscaster on one of his TV channels.
Here's a look at the 10 most profitable tax evaders and the politicians their CEOs, employees, and PACs give the most money to,
© The Canadian Press/Adrian Wyld
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper speaks with the media during a news conference following the closing of the Summit of the Americas in Cartagena, Sunday April 15, 2012.
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper speaks with the media during a news conference following the closing of the Summit of the Americas in Cartagena, Sunday April 15, 2012.
But it's even rarer that you'll hear Stephen Harper concede that the war on drugs is a failure.
It happened, though, after two days of listening to Latin American leaders explaining just how costly, and bloody, the war is.
Harper met Canadian journalists and readily admitted differences over the exclusion of Cuba from the Latin summit. He admitted, too, to a disagreement over British rule in the Falkland Islands.
But he was not ready to agree that the division over drug policy is so clear-cut. Rather, he insisted that there is much agreement. Then came the most interesting quote of the day.
"What I think everybody believes," Harper said, "is that the current approach is not working. But it is not clear what we should do."
Spain has been accused of planning "draconian" new laws against street protests by curbing the use of social networking.
Jorge Fernandez Diaz, the Spanish interior minister announced in Congress on Wednesday that a reform of the penal code was planned to criminalise those involved in organising street protests that "seriously disturb the public peace".
Under the laws, a minimum jail term of two years could be imposed on those found guilty of instigating and carrying out violent acts of protest under a new package of measures unveiled on Wednesday.
© Reuters
Protesters shout slogans during a general strike in Madrid, Spain in March 2012
Protesters shout slogans during a general strike in Madrid, Spain in March 2012
Under the laws, a minimum jail term of two years could be imposed on those found guilty of instigating and carrying out violent acts of protest under a new package of measures unveiled on Wednesday.
© Nrbelex
On a nothing-special summer afternoon in 2010, I sat in the Cambridge Public Library preparing a speech on something I'd been studying for decades. I plugged "world hunger" into the library's computer. Food Politics: What Everyone Needs to Know popped up.
Perfect, I thought. I knew I would have differences with the book because I'd just read a critique of the views of its author, Robert Paarlberg, by my daughter Anna Lappé on the Foreign Policy website. But I'm always eager to know how those with whom I disagree make their case. Noticing that Food Politics was published by Oxford University Press, I felt confident I could count on it being a credibly argued and sourced counterpoint.
So I began reading.
"I couldn't believe my eyes" doesn't do justice to the shock I experienced.
The book's subtitle suggests coverage of essential food issues and its back cover indicates Food Politics is not just another example of "conflicting claims and accusations from advocates," but rather "maps this contested terrain." Yet, I was finding only one piece of the "map" with key issues at the center of the global food debate omitted altogether. But what was jaw-dropping for me was that Food Politics lacked any citations for the book's many startling claims.
© Khomulo Anna / Shutterstock
© Gonzalo Lira Blogspot
It's the "and for other purposes" part of the title that has me worried - specifically Section 40304: "Revocation or denial of passport in case of certain unpaid taxes."
This section would give the IRS the power to keep a U.S. citizen from traveling -
- and it's another example of Executive Power run amok. It's another example of how the United States is turning into a police-state.
The right to travel freely is sacrosanct - it's not some privilege that the government bestows on us: It's one of our basic freedoms as citizens. In point of fact, the countries that have limited their citizens' ability to travel - the Soviet Union, the People's Republic of China, North Korea, Cuba - were all rightfully called "police-states": It's one of their defining characteristics - the fact that they were keeping their citizens hostage.
In the United States, there are several, clearly defined reasons why you would have your passport either denied or revoked - and all of them pass the smell test.
In the case of a passport being denied, according to the U.S. State Department, the reasons are:
Additionally, failure to pay a court-ordered child-support in excess of $5,000 can also be grounds for the State Department to refuse to issue a passport to a U.S. citizen."a federal warrant of arrest, a federal or state criminal court order, a condition of parole or probation forbidding departure from the United States (or the jurisdiction of the court), or a request for extradition [by a foreign country].
