Common Dreams

Boreal forests provide 250 billion dollars a year in ecosystem services like reducing atmospheric carbon and water filtration, but which have gone unacknowledged by governments and industry, experts say. By Stephen Leahy

According to a report by 16 U.S. Spy agencies leaked to The New York Times, the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq has helped create more global terrorism and energize jihadist ideology throughout the world since the 9/11 attacks. By Camilo Mejia

Presidential advisor Karl Rove has been touting his "October surprise," aimed at keeping Republicans in office. While Rove will most certainly exploit the fear factor, the question remains if we'll let ourselves be fooled - yet again. By Heather Wokusch

Now the death toll is 9/11 times two. U.S. military deaths from Iraq and Afghanistan now match those of the most devastating terrorist attack in America's history, the trigger for what came next. Add casualties from chasing terrorists elsewhere in the world, and the total has passed the Sept.

Another giant ozone hole has opened up over the Antarctic, while evidence mounts that 20 years of international efforts have finally helped the atmosphere to start to heal itself. By Stephen Leahy

The Republicans are trying to keep George W. Bush out of jail. So far, the media and the Democrats haven't done much to stop them. By Thom Hartmann

Britain's leading scientists have challenged the US oil company ExxonMobil to stop funding groups that attempt to undermine the scientific consensus on climate change. By David Adam

Last week, Sen.

Bush failed to finish Afghan 'job,' senator says Taliban emerge stronger, drug crops flourishing. By Tim Harper

The Environmental Protection Agency intends to close labs, cut its cadre of upper-level scientists and reduce regulatory oversight, according to an internal agency document. By David Goldstein

Last month's release of U.S. household income and poverty data for 2005 confirmed what we already knew: The five-year-old American economic expansion continues to bypass most working families. What we didn't learn -- what no data release can tell us -- is what to do about it. By Jared Bernstein

Alarmed Scientists Warn that Polar Thawing Threatens Wildlife and is 'Strongest Evidence Yet of Global Warming' in Region. By Jane Kay

Few media marching bands have beat the Iraq war drums more frantically and with more influence than the editorial pages of the Washington Post. On Monday, the Post announced the hiring of another drummer boy, one who played a key propaganda role inside the Bush White House. By Jeff Cohen

After enduring two major assaults, Fallujah is under threat from U.S. forces again, residents say. "They destroyed our city twice and they are threatening us a third time," 52-year-old Ahmed Dhahy told IPS in Fallujah, the Sunni-dominated city 50km west of Baghdad. By Dahr Jamail and Ali al-Fadhily

The area to the west of Baghdad includes Fallujah, Ramadi and other towns that have seen the worst of military occupation, and the strongest resistance. By Dahr Jamail and Ali Al-Fadhily

It was 1933. Workers were an unhappy bunch. The Depression was hanging on. So was the 1920s' mentality toward labor, so effectively enabled by a Supreme Court indistinguishable from a corporate boardroom. By Pierre Tristam

The Commission fulfilled none of those three objectives. In their responsibility to report all the facts: They either refused to interview all relevant experts and witnesses, or, they censored the reports provided to them by those with direct and first-hand information.

Top oil and defence industry executives in the United States are raking in record personal profits on the backs of the U.S. wars following the terror attacks of Sep. 11, 2001 and sky-high oil prices, two think-tanks said Wednesday. By Emad Mekay

We live in a nuclear age. With that comes nuclear terror – an odious legacy of the Cold War. Nuclear powers (including the United States) continue to maintain nuclear weapons on "hair-trigger alert" ready to destroy other nations in minutes. By Judi Friedman

Recent surveys measuring public opinion and confidence in congress all arrived at the same conclusion: over seventy percent of Americans have lost faith and confidence in the United States Congress.

by Thom Hartmann  

In the years since George W.

Tons of heavy fuel oil, spilled into the sea during the battle with Israel, foul Lebanon -- may reach Syria, Turkey

by Frank Rich August 27, 2006 

President Bush travels to the Gulf Coast this week, os

It has been said that Israel has made the same mistake in Lebanon as it did in 1982: using overwhelming military force to solve a political problem. It failed then and it has failed now.

The Gates Foundation now has about $60 Billion under the control of the wealthiest people in America. They do not have to sell any of their positions in the stocks that they put under the tax-exempt umbrella. By Sheldon Drobny

While Americans understand that making money motivates McDonald's or Wal-Mart, and some are concerned about businesses donating large sums to influence politicians, most are unaware of how the profit motive helps shape U.S. foreign policy. By Gary Ferdman and Myriam Miedzian

Expressing concern over the "pervasiveness of corruption" in the management of water, a coalition of six international non-governmental organisations has created a new global anti-corruption watchdog body: the Water Integrity Network (WIN). By Thalif Deen

David Murray, a drug policy analyst for the Bush administration, was asked recently about cocaine cultivation in Colombia, where the United States has been fighting an expensive, low-grade war against coca growers since 2000. By Pierre Tristam

With murder and other violent crimes on the rise in many American cities, local law enforcement agencies and elected officials are battling to stave off $1.1 billion in federal funding cuts proposed by President Bush. By William Douglas

With the spotlight on Lebanon, another Middle East milestone is passing largely unnoticed. However, its lessons are just as important. A year ago this week, Israel began implementing its unilateral Gaza disengagement plan -- yet the region is beset by violence.