“[There are] an estimated one million Iraqi war widows … official figures estimate that one in six women is widowed.”

Reposted from Informed Comment.

“It is time for the public in the United States and around the world to face the sordid reality of post-surge Iraq and do something about it — beginning with the release of all those illegally held in U.S. and Iraqi prisons. Detention facilities should be opened to national and international observers.”

The presidentless government of Lebanon has reversed the anti-Hezbollah orders it decreed a few days ago, and true to their word, the Hezbollah have stepped down.

“After 15 years of civil war, 15 of diluted sovereignty, and three of limbo, the Lebanese deserve at last to have a level of politics commensurate with their talents and energies. If Nasrallah is the man who makes this happen, history will judge his actions to have been a revolution, not a coup, and a long-overdue one at that.”

Also see: Hezbollah Leaves West Beirut After Beating Government Challenge | Bloomberg

This paper continues a debate over the extent of economic and social progress in Venezuela that began with an article in the March/April 2008 issue of Foreign Affairs. This article argued that “a close look at the evidence reveals just how much Chávez’s ‘revolution’ has hurt Venezuela’s economy — and that the poor are hurting most of all.” CEPR responded with “An Empty Research Agenda: The Creation of Myths About Contemporary Venezuela,” showing that the main allegations of the article were wrong. The author of the Foreign Affairs article, economist Francisco Rodriguez, then responded with an Economics Working Paper at Wesleyan University, which defended his original analysis. The current paper demonstrates that Rodriguez’s assertions in his response are almost all without merit.

“When Hamas became part of the Palestinian government, the West rejected it. So Hamas took over Gaza. When the Hizbollah became part of the Lebanese government, the Americans rejected it. Now Hizbollah has taken over west Beirut … No, this is not a civil war. Nor is it a coup d’etat, though it meets some of the criteria. It is part of the war against America in the Middle East.”

Also see: Franklin Lamb: Street Notes from the Hamra District | Counter Punch

“[T]he Bush administration must order the reversal of Monday’s Lebanese Cabinet decisions. It is widely believed that they ordered them and are responsible to reverse them and to accept a dialogue with the Opposition.”

–It seems as though every generation is going to have to fight for women’s rights.

–There’s a novel idea. It won’t work in the long run but might give some support to alternative models for food production.

–International capital has its hand in these separatists movements in Latin America.

At a time when George W. Bush’s job approval rating has fallen to 28%, just 6 in 10 Republicans approve of the job he is doing, the lowest of his administration.

–This is what happens when the Labour Party becomes the Neo-Liberal Party. It is still a complete farce. As bad as Neo Labour is, it is still more “progressive” than the crazy right-wing Conservatives. What is also funny is that the idea that the Conservatives are somehow less authoritarian than Labour. The Conservatives want to give all the control to the “Market” and blame the bad times on “immigrants”. That’s hardly progressive.

–More bad news for the Canadian economy.

–With all sides given opportunity to present arguements, I am sure.

–Another public service getting cut by the current federal Conservative government.

–This is a big loser for the people of New Brunswick. It is basically another tax on the working people of New Brunswick.

–Seriously? Do we really think that this is not out of control?

Venezuelan workers have halted operations at the Isidora gold mine, run by a subsidiary of U.S. miner Hecla Mining Co, to demand President Hugo Chavez take over the unit, a company official said on Wednesday.

They are: “Amir Yacoub al-Amir, great-grandson of Sudan’s Caliph [who was himself], with numerous other relatives, captured and imprisoned by the British army, after the fall of General Gordon’s regime in 1885, [and then] dispatched (or, in modern terms, rendered) to Egypt, where conditions were so brutal that al-Amir’s great-grandfather died in [custody]; Walid Ali, survivor of an Afghan massacre; and Said al-Boujaadia, cleared for 18 months [and now] imprisoned on his return to Morocco.”

“Surely it is now time to acknowledge the narrative of the other, the price paid by another people for European anti-semitism and Hitler’s genocidal policies. As Edward Said emphasised, what the Holocaust is to the Jews, the Naqba is to the Palestinians … We cannot celebrate the birthday of a state founded on terrorism, massacres and the dispossession of another people from their land. We cannot celebrate the birthday of a state that even now engages in ethnic cleansing, that violates international law, that is inflicting a monstrous collective punishment on the civilian population of Gaza and that continues to deny to Palestinians their human rights and national aspirations … We will celebrate when Arab and Jew live as equals in a peaceful Middle East.”

Also see: Israeli Arabs say racism on rise as Israel turns 60 | International Herald Tribune

“Sharpton, two survivors of the shooting and the slain man’s fiancee were among about a dozen people arrested at the Brooklyn Bridge on Wednesday as hundreds of demonstrators blocked traffic to protest the acquittal of three detectives in the 50-bullet shooting of an unarmed black man on his wedding day.”