Common Dreams

All you had to do was take one look down normally bustling St. Nicholas Ave. in Washington Heights yesterday afternoon to sense an astonishing event was underway. By Juan Gonzalez

2005 was a good year for bad corporations. There were no U.S. elections to worry about, with their troubling possibility of politicians running on the popular platform of curbing corporate power. By Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman

Thanks to $3-a-gallon gasoline and $75-a-barrel oil, wind power - the once-wimpy little brother of the energy industry - is putting on muscle and gaining favor. By Robert S. Boyd

Violations of laws on human-trafficking prompt U.S. military's order for change. By Cam Simpson

Even though little is known about the evidence the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) relied on to freeze and seize assets of Muslim charities, it appears there is much stronger evidence against Halliburton...

A leading international human rights group is calling for the Bush administration to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the alleged involvement of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other senior Pentagon officials in the torture of a prisoner at Guanatanamo Bay some three years ago.

With polls showing that large majorities of Americans now see global warming as a serious threat, the folks at ExxonMobil are spending a lot of money on TV ads, trying to convince the public that they too take climate change seriously. By Jay Bookman

Here we go again. The administration says ''regime change'' is needed. Warnings are issued about the threat posed by the ''madman'' who leads the oil-rich country.

In January of 2006 I attended the International Institute for Mediation and Conflict Resolution (IIMCR) 2005-2006 Africa Symposium in Cape Town, South Africa.

Florida tomato pickers converged on McDonald's Corp.'s flagship Chicago restaurant over the weekend to protest poor working conditions and wages they say have stagnated for 30 years. By Abid Aslam

Several years ago I read about a person commiserating with his friend about a serious medical diagnosis. "How bad is it?" he inquired. "Well, let's put it this way: I've stopped flossing." By Gilbert Jordan

Environmental and indigenous activists are leaving the 8th Conference of Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP8) with a sense of disappointment, because of the absence both of practical decisions and of their participation in key negotiations. By Mario Osava

The corporatist Republicans ("amnesty!") are fighting with the racist Republicans ("fence!"), and it provides an opportunity for progressives to step forward with a clear solution to the immigration problem facing America. By Thom Hartmann

Freeloader? Illegal immigrant? Criminal? Or hero? By Pierre Tristam

In a letter sent today to all Representatives, reform groups urged House members to oppose H.R. 4975, the lobbying and ethics legislation recently proposed by the House Republican leadership, and to support alternative measures to provide real reforms in these areas.

The WSJ reports that ExxonMobil is the key funder of a front group called Public Interest Watch which has been pushing the IRS to audit Greenpeace. By Charlie Cray

Meanwhile, Greenpeace International added another urgent action for saving life on earth: protecting international waters. By Mario Osava

It's not just that they control all three branches of government -- conservatives increasingly dominate our news media as well. Turn on your television and you'll see show after show where conservative guests debate the issues of the day, often with no progressive representation.

We find ourselves in a remarkable situation today. Despite a massive propaganda campaign in support of the occupation of Iraq, a clear majority of people in the United States now believes the invasion was not worth the consequences and should never have been undertaken.

Several human rights activists are being detained after protesting at the forced eviction by riot police of elderly villagers in Pyongtaek, in the north west of South Korea.

The American people share the blame for the war in Iraq. That was one of the messages during the Iraqi Women Speak Out Tour, an anti-war event that drew hundreds of attendees to the Veterans Memorial Building. By Gwen Mickelson

Internal soda-company documents provided by a whistleblower show that in late 1990 it was known that the benzene being discovered in some soft drinks was not due to contaminated carbon dioxide, as had been the case with Perrier.

Conservatives are all atwitter about illegal immigrants. Some want to give them amnesty. Others want to reinstitute the old Bracero program. Others want to build a wall around America, like the communists did around East Berlin. Some advocate all of the above. By Thom Hartmann

In a white-clapboard town hall, circa 1832, voters gathered Tuesday to conduct their community's annual business and to call for the impeachment of President Bush.

Religion and conservative politics got married in the American media back in the 1970s. Now they are wedded indissolubly, or so we are told. Divorce seems unthinkable.

How does the U.S. go after Iran after a sweet deal with India? by Haroon Siddiqui

Gonzales claimed that domestic spying is an essential tool in the overall "War on Terror." By Cindy Sheehan and Sam Bostaph

"I don't think enough people know how much damage this administration can do to their civil liberties in a very short time. What would you have me do? Grumble and complain? Make cynical jokes? By Lewis H. Lapham

The Congress and the press are up in arms about President Bush's tone deaf defense of the $6.8 billion deal to sell the operation (and security) of six major American ports to DP World, a firm owned by the government of the United Arab Emirates, without even going through with the mandated 45-day re

The United Arab Emirates (UAE), the center of a growing controversy over its proposed management of U.S. port terminals, is one of the world's most prolific arms buyers and a multi-billion-dollar military market both for the United States and Western Europe. By Thalif Deen