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This article originally appeared on Tom Dispatch. Afghanistan may turn out to be one of the great misbegotten “stimulus packages” of the modern era, a construction boom in the middle of nowhere with materials largely shipped in at enormous expense to no lasting purpose whatsoever.  With the U.S. military officially drawing down its troops there, the Pentagon is now evidently reversing the process and embarking on a major deconstruction program.  It’s  tearing up  tarmacs, shutting down  outposts , and packing up some of its smaller facilities.  Next year, the number of International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) coalition bases in the southwest of the country alone is scheduled to plummet from 214 to 70,  according  to the  New York Times

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Israelis are being sold on war with Iran in more ways than one. In a commercial featuring John Cleese (a veteran of the zany British comedy shows,  Monty Python’s Flying Circus and  Fawlty Towers ), a high level general takes a taste of a delectable chocolate and hazelnut spread and inadvertently sets in motion an Israeli military strike on an unnamed country — Iran by implication and context — a command that the Israelis have been waiting for and are eager to carry out

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Once again, Koch brothers cash will face off against a people-powered campaign in Wisconsin this November.

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In 2008, when a first-term Senator from Illinois with a gold tongue and an exotic back story inspired millions of citizens–young and old, black and white, rich and poor, progressive and moderate—to feel hopeful about the country for the first time in generations, Ralph Nader wasn’t buying it. Nader, who has investigated and exposed governmental and corporate wrongdoing for nearly 50 years, was on his third consecutive Presidential run, traipsing around the country discussing the two-party stranglehold on the political system, the need for an increase in the minimum wage, an end to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, campaign finance, tax and health insurance reform, the end of the big-money influence in Washington, a reexamination of trade agreements that sent jobs overseas, increased environmental protections … the list went on and on. Of Obamamania, Nader said , “People are going to be disappointed.” Four years later, Nader’s 2008 predictions about Barack Obama sound prescient.

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It’s been known since the 1950s that feeding low doses of antibiotics to livestock increases their weight gain.

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Do you ever pass a homeless person on your way to work? Is there a soup kitchen in your town

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As the sun slowly sets over the Republican National Convention in Tampa, we settle back in the chairs that nice Mr.

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Editor’s note: The following is a transcript of a Democracy Now! interview with Rolling Stone contributing editor Matt Taibbi, whose recent article in the magazine gets to the bottom of Mitt Romney’s enormous wealth.  A new  article  by reporter Matt Taibbi in  Rolling Stone sheds light on the origin of his fortune, revealing how Romney’s former firm, Bain Capital, used private equity to raise money to conduct corporate raids. Matt Taibbi writes, quote, “what most voters don’t know is the way Mitt Romney  actually  made his fortune: by borrowing vast sums of money that other people were forced to pay back

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Every four years the United States becomes gripped in morbid fascination with our electoral machinations, and grassroots organizers often find their ongoing work derailed by the Democratic and Republican nominating conventions that precede our presidential elections. This 2012 cycle is no different. As activists prepare to protest, the police departments and ruling elites in the host cities are acquiring the newest non- and less- lethal weaponry, while passing laws and regulations that vie for being more repressive and harmful to free speech than the others

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“My very first survivor was a boy. How many of us are looking for boys?” –Sandra Morgan, Director, Global Center for Women & Justice at Vanguard University     His legs were thin as faded whispers and dangled like twisted ropes from his wheelchair, and his walk was a drag as he pulled himself along with worn-out school erasers clutched in each hand. Nadu was born this way and despite being 13 years old, he had just received his first wheelchair the day prior to my arrival

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