Category Archives: RagBlog

Spending on Peace Is More Cost Effective

Military spending is set to rise 34% by 2012.The purchasing power of peaceBy Jorn Madslien / June 3, 2009 Purchasing power long ago overtook manpower as the most important lever in the race towards military might. Currently, personnel expenditure accounts … Continue reading

Posted in RagBlog | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Barbara Ehrenreich to Journalism Grads : Welcome to the Working Class

Drop your sense of entitlement, Ehrenreich tells a graduating class of media makers, journalists are now ‘part of the working class.’ By Barbara Ehrenreich / June 4, 2009. [The following is the text of Barbara Ehrenreich’s commencement address on May … Continue reading

Posted in RagBlog | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Guantanamo Prisoners Shaming Washington

I can think of very little that is more disgusting than the words of a former commander of the Guantanamo facility (which I missed when they were uttered in June 2006). He said that three detainee suicides were not acts … Continue reading

Posted in RagBlog | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Capable of Learning Nothing from Almost Any Experience

Graceful Reprieve – art by William O’Connor.Happy Days: ReprieveBy Tim Kreider / June 2, 2009 Fourteen years ago I was stabbed in the throat. This is kind of a long story and it’s not the point of this essay. The … Continue reading

Posted in RagBlog | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

Obama’s Middle East Policy: Dependent on the All-Important Follow-Through

A souvenir shop owner displays a metal plaque for sale to tourists in Cairo, Egypt, on May 28, ahead of President Obama’s June 4 speech. Photo: AP Photo/Ben Curtis.Obama, Muslim-world rock starBy Juan Cole / June 3, 2009 They like … Continue reading

Posted in RagBlog | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

The Sotomayor Nomination : Racism and Right-Wing Lunacy

Racism and Right-Wing Lunacy Her comment was simply a truism: identity shapes experience, which then informs perceptions. Identity provides a lens through which one then observes reality. By Tim Wise / June 1, 2009 For a group that regularly decries … Continue reading

Posted in RagBlog | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Movement Lawyer Dead in Plane Crash

Attorney Susan Jordan, shown here in her Oakland office in 1999, was killed Friday in a plane crash in southern Utah. Photo: John Burgess/The Press Democrat. Susan Jordan defended the Rag‘s own Marilyn Buck. Susan Jordan, Criminal Justice Defense Lawyer … Continue reading

Posted in RagBlog | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Rules Bar Non-Profit News Media from Congress

The House of Representatives Press Gallery. Photo: Source.Capitol Improvement: If nonprofits are supposed to save journalism, why aren’t their reporters allowed into congressional press galleries?By Megan Tady / June 2, 2009 An outdated congressional rule effectively excludes nonprofit news organizations … Continue reading

Posted in RagBlog | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

BOOKS / Bob Zellner’s ‘The Wrong Side of Murder Creek’

If you want a taste of what life on the front lines was like in the Southern civil rights movement, you have to read this book. By Jo Freeman [The Wrong Side of Murder Creek: A White Southerner in the … Continue reading

Posted in RagBlog | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Bill O’Reilly and ‘Tiller the Baby Killer’

Excerpts from Bill O’Reilly’s attacks on murdered physician George Tiller.O’Reilly’s campaign against murdered doctor The Fox News star had compared Tiller to a Nazi, called him a ‘baby killer,’ and warned of ‘Judgment Day’ By Gabriel Winant / May 31, … Continue reading

Posted in RagBlog | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments

Chavez: ‘When the Working Class Roars, the Capitalists Tremble’

Photo: AFP/Getty Images.Venezuela: ‘When the working class roars, capitalists tremble’By Federico Fuentes / May 30, 2009 Addressing the 400-strong May 21 workshop with workers from the industrial heartland of Guayana, dedicated to the “socialist transformation of basic industry”, Venezuelan President … Continue reading

Posted in RagBlog | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Obama, the Anti-War Movement and the Neo-Cons: Turning the Ship Around

“Warship 53.” Photo from sailsarana.com Obama’s agenda of ‘turning the battleship’ is not our agenda of disarming it altogether: ending U.S. interventionism and bullying of all sorts, initiating an era of peaceful global cooperation to tackle poverty, disease, global warming … Continue reading

Posted in RagBlog | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment