Author Archives: Thorne Dreyer

Juan Cole : Michael Jackson, Islam and the Middle East

Michael Jackson. Photo from Getty Images. Michael Jackson was deeply hurt and humiliated by the experience [of his 2005 trial], and his withdrawal to Bahrain and search for a different tradition of spirituality may well have come out of that … Continue reading

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Mark Sanford : GOP in Trouble, Pants-Down

South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford takes the oath of office for a second term in 2007 with his wife, Jenny, and sons (from left) Marshall III, Landon, Bolton and Blake. Lessee, that’s two oaths down and counting. Photo by Mary … Continue reading

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Mexican Elections : Calderón Beats Law and Order Drum

Mexican President Felipe Calderón: his political muscle will be weakened. Photo by Gurinder Osan / AP. With all that sucking the sand from beneath his feet, President Felipe Calderón, like every beleagured right-winger since Nixon, is beating the Law and … Continue reading

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Alan Haber : Exposing the Dark Forces

As long as these forces operate, and are not pursued, there is no democracy, whatever the window dressings. By Alan Haber / The Rag Blog / June 25, 2009 See ‘Did the CIA kill Bobby Kennedy?’ by Shane O’Sullivan, Below. … Continue reading

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Neda and the Kent State 4 : Heartbreaking Then and Now

(Above) Neda Agha-Soltan, 27, who bled to death on the streets of Tehran, Saturday, June 20, 2009. Still shot from video taken with cell phone and posted to YouTube. (Below) Mary Ann Vecchio, a fourteen-year-old runaway, kneeling over the dead … Continue reading

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NASA Scientist, Actress Hannah, Arrested in Coal Mining Protest

Actress Darryl Hannah is arrested by West Virginia State Police Tuesday, June 23, 2009 following a mountaintop removal mining protest in Naoma, W.Va. She was among several hundred protesters who held a rally outside Marsh Fork Elementary school that sits … Continue reading

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Short Attention-Span News (A Little Birdie Told Me)

Trippin’ down the cobblestones:Short Attention-Span News By Mariann G. Wizard / The Rag Blog / June 25, 2009 [“slow down, you move too fast; you got to make the morning last; just trippin down the cobblestones, lookin for fun and … Continue reading

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Health Insurance : The High Cost of ‘Competition’

Can private insurers compete? The truth is that the Republicans aren’t opposed to a government-run system because the private companies can do it better and cheaper — they can’t. They oppose the public insurance choice because they want to protect … Continue reading

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Bad Boy Mark Sanford, and the Freedom Fighters from Martin Jr. High

South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, no longer MIA, fesses up. Photo by Mary Ann Chastain / AP.Modern-day Freedom Fighters On June 4, the state Supreme Court ruled 5-0 against Gov. Sanford, finding that he must apply for the $700 million … Continue reading

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Fight for the Amazon : The Planet’s at Stake

A police helicopter takes away indigenous protesters who have been arrested in the Peruvian rainforest. It returns later and is used to fire tear gas at protesters. Photo by Thomas Quirynen and Marijke Deleu / Independent, U.K.A fight for the … Continue reading

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U.S. National Debt : Cliffs Notes for Conservatives

Graphic by Larry Ray / The Rag Blog. With apologies to Cliffs Notes.Cliffs Notes for Conservatives I find it both bewildering and angering when Republican conservatives lambaste President Obama for the present state of indebtedness on America’s balance sheet as … Continue reading

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New York : Radical Queers Remember Stonewall With Spirited March

Photo by Andrew Hinderaker. Queers, allies and residents of the park took to the streets and marched to the Stonewall Inn to the applause of people on the sidewalks as we chanted “We will not be quiet! Stonewall was a … Continue reading

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