Chris Hedges, Truthdig | Op-Ed
Tim DeChristopher is scheduled to be sentenced in a Salt Lake City courtroom by U.S. District Judge Dee Benson on July 26. He faces up to 10 years in prison and a $750,000 fine for fraudulently bidding in December 2008 on parcels of land, including areas around eastern Utah’s national parks, which were being sold off by the Bush administration to the oil and natural gas industry. As Bidder No. 70, he drove up the prices of some of the bids and won more than a dozen other parcels for $1.8 million. The government is asking Judge Benson to send DeChristopher to prison for four and a half years.
His prosecution is evidence that our moral order has been turned upside down. The bankers and swindlers who trashed the global economy and wiped out some $40 trillion in...
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Dean Baker, Truthout | News Analysis
As we know, President Obama and his team do not appear to be very effective negotiators when it comes to dealing with the Republicans in Congress. Last December, the Republicans forced the president to renew the Bush tax cuts for the rich. More recently, they got him to make $38 billion in cuts to the 2011 budget even though all his economists know that the economy actually needs more stimulus, which more means spending.
Since the president is having so much trouble dealing...
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J. Sri Raman, Truthout | News Analysis
Much has been written about what the killing of Osama bin Laden on May 2 can mean for Pakistan-US relations. A less noticed impact of the event on ever-tenuous India-Pakistan ties, however, may matter more to the prospect of peace in South Asia, the only region in the world witnessing a nuclear arms race today.
One of the very first questions raised in India by the US Navy Sea, Air and Land (SEAL) team was whether this was or was not an example for this country to...
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