November 8, 2008

When the Mexican dictator Porfirio Díaz said the great tragedy of Mexico was that it was so far from God and so close to the United States, the comment summed up the long and tortured relationship between the Colossus of the North and Latin America.

A night to remember

A Moment To Savor

Religion and communism

Reclaiming our country?

Italian students strike

Pakistan’s earthquake

CLEVELAND – Over 100 members of the Newspaper Guild Local 1 held a brief rally and picketed the Plain Dealer Oct. 30 to protest an anti-union buyout offer in an ongoing downsizing of the city’s only daily.

Voting rights organizations had warned for months that thousands of voters across the country mighbe disenfranchised by problems related to anticipated high turnout or actions that lessened participation of specific groups of voters. While they focused on protecting the vote, they also looked ahead to future fundamental reforms.

LONDON (AP) – The Democratic Republic of Congo has been in a ceaseless war for some 10 years with a mind-numbing toll: 5.5 million dead and 300,000 women raped.

“What was new was the breadth, extent, and depth of the protest, and above all the confluence of actors.” For analyst Raul Zibechi, the “other Colombia” was manifest in a wave of indigenous and workers’ protests against the regime of President Alvaro Uribe. Along the line, Uribe, custodian of a militarized U.S. puppet state, blinked.

As the economy continues crashing and as Congress readies for a special post-election Nov. 17 session at which it could pass a new stimulus package of more than $300 billion, labor and its allies are pushing for sweeping measures aimed at getting millions back to work and putting money into the pockets of the people.

As the nation’s economic crisis deepens, more states are struggling with huge and escalating budget gaps. Unless they receive substantial help soon from the federal government, many will be forced to make further cuts in health and human services programs just when these are needed more than ever by growing numbers of laid-off workers and their families.

Riding Barack Obama’s long coattails, the Democrats expanded their Senate majority by at least five seats and added 20 or more to their majority in the House of Representatives Nov. 4.