Table of Contents - May 2009

Commentary

FROM THE WEB: Net Briefs - May 2009 by Various Contributors *

On Trial News from the RNC8 (arrested at the Republican National Convention in August 2008) is that Ramsey County Attorney Susan Gaertner has dropped one count of Conspiracy to Commit Riot in... More / Printer-Friendly version

THE COURT: The Subprime Court by Rob Larson *

By now everyone knows the new Supreme Court tilts to the right. Bush's nominees Justice Alito and Chief Justice Roberts lead a conservative five-justice bloc, where reproductive health rights... More / Printer-Friendly version

MELTDOWN: Three Mile Island at 30 by John M. LaForge

March 28 marked 30 years since the partial meltdown and radiation disaster at Three Mile Island (TMI) near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. News accounts noted the reactor's loss of coolant, fuel melting,... More / Printer-Friendly version

ELECTION RESULTS: El Salvador Conquers Fear, Elects Leftist President by Sofia Jarrin-Thomas

FMLN supporters in San Salvador's Masferrer Plaza on March 15—photo by Joeff Davis / www.Joeff.com On March 15, 2009 the people... More / Printer-Friendly version

SURVEILLANCE: Tracked by Spies and Informers by Julia A. Shearson

The February 26, 2009 revelation in the Los Angeles Times that FBI domestic intelligence informant and ex-convict Craig Monteilh and others were paid handsomely to spy on Muslim Americans in... More / Printer-Friendly version

EYES RIGHT: Von Mises Rises from the Scrap Heap of History by Chip Berlet

Corporate coffers are spilling out tens of millions of dollars to block the Employee Free Choice Act and keep unions from having a fair chance at organizing workers. Their propagandists claim this... More / Printer-Friendly version

CONSERVATIVE WATCH: God, Guns, and Blood by Bill Berkowitz

From the 1970s through the 1990s, the deeply held religious beliefs of an assortment of white nationalists were the scaffolding of a broad, and often violent, movement of racists and anti-Semites.... More / Printer-Friendly version

GAY & LESBIAN COMMUNITY NOTES: "Showgirls" and Cultural Change by Michael Bronski

I have never wanted to go to Las Vegas, ever. The entire concept of it—people losing their money in unbridled gambling, hideous conspicuous consumption, extravagant (although... More / Printer-Friendly version

Activism

ECO-ORGANIZING: Climate Justice and Coal's Funeral Procession by Joshua Kahn Russell *

Capital Power Plant—photo by Matt Stern On March 2, 2009 around 4,000 people came to the... More / Printer-Friendly version

COMMUNITY ORGANIZING: Fight on the Border by John Gibler

Calle del Perón once led to a working class neighborhood of some 300 houses on a high barren mesa overlooking the sprawling barrios of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico to the east and the green... More / Printer-Friendly version

Features

FOG WATCH: Civilian Plane Shoot-Downs & International (In)Justice by Edward Herman

It is enlightening and sometimes even amusing to see how the treatment of the shooting down of civilian planes is politicized and how, in this area as in so many others, the media propagandize in... More / Printer-Friendly version

IMPERIAL POLITICS: Obama's Violin by Paul Street *

As of this writing in late March, the Barack Obama administration and its allies in the Democratic-run Congress have been attempting to perform system-maintaining acts of co-optation and popular... More / Printer-Friendly version

REVISITING: The Israeli-U.S. Gaza War and Its Aftermath by Herbert P. Bix *

In July 2004, Israeli jurists on the High Court of Justice (HCJ) deliberated on Israel's infamous separation wall in the occupied Palestinian West Bank. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) at... More / Printer-Friendly version

HISTORY HANDBOOK: The Caroline Rooting by Nicolas J. S. Davies

In his first press conference on February 9, President Obama tried to justify attacks by U.S. Predator and Raptor drones that are killing hundreds of Pakistanis in their own country. He explained... More / Printer-Friendly version

Culture

ACTIVIST ART: Signs of Change by Savannah Schroll Guz *

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DOCUMENTARY: Trumbo by Ben Terrall

Dalton Trumbo began writing professionally as a cub reporter while still in high school in Grand Junction, Colorado. His first Hollywood screenwriting credit was on Road Gang in 1936. For film noir... More / Printer-Friendly version

BOOK REVIEW: Keeping Down the Black Vote by Roger Bybee

By Frances Fox Piven, Lorraine C. Minnite, and Margaret Groarke, with an introduction by Adam Cohen; New Press, 2009, 281 pp. The sordid reality revealed in Keeping Down the Black Vote was... More / Printer-Friendly version

Zaps

FREE LISTINGS: Zaps - May 2009 by Various Contributors *

Events MAY DAY - A May Day rally is scheduled for Friday, May 1 at Union Square in NYC, demonstrating in favor of pro-worker (and pro-immigrant) reform and against the... More / Printer-Friendly version