 |  | | The Post-Qadhafi Libya |
 WITH the death of Moamer
Qadhafi the Arab spring has
claimed a third victory. The
Libyan people have the
chance to build a just and
democratic system of governance after
42 years of autonomous rule by the
colonel, his family, his cronies and his
tribe. No wonder there are such scenes
of jubilation throughout the country.
Qadhafi´s removal will be a source of
great relief to the new government of
Libya, whatever its ultimate composition.
Qadhafi had billions of dollars at
his disposal, in cash and gold, with
which he was threatening to fund an
insurgency and derail the revolution.
Nevertheless, the new regime would
probably rather have captured Qadhafi
alive to make a show of his trial, as the
Iraqi interim government did with
Saddam Hussein in 2004. Such a trial. |
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| |  | | PARTY OF
POLLUTION |  LAST month President
Obama finally unveiled a
serious economic stimulus
plan - far short of what I´d
like to see, but a step in the
right direction. Republicans, predictably,
have blocked it. But the
new plan, combined with the
Occupy Wall Street demonstrations,
seems to have shifted the
national conversation. We are, suddenly,
focused on what we should
have been talking about all along:
jobs.
So what is the GOP jobs plan?
The answer, in large part, is to
allow more pollution. So what you
need to know is that weakening
environmental regulations would
do little to create jobs and would
make us both poorer and sicker.
Now it would be wrong to say
that all Republicans see increased
pollution as the answer to... |
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Legends Seeger, Guthrie join Wall Street protest
AP NEW YORK FOLK music legend Pete Seeger and ‘60s folk singer Arlo Guthrie joined Occupy Wall Street demonstrators in their campaign against corporate greed while residents near the protest park encampment pushed to regain some peace and quiet in their neighborhood.
Seeger joined in the Occupy Wall Street protest on Friday night, replacing his banjo with two canes as he marched with throngs of people in New York City’s tony Upper West Side past banks and shiny department stores. The 92-year-old Seeger, accompanied by musiciangrandson Tao Rodriguez Seeger, composer David Amram and bluesman Guy Davis, shouted out the verses of protest anthems as the crowd of about 1,000 people sang and chanted.
They marched peacefully over more than 30 blocks from Symphony Space, where the Seegers and other musicians performed, to Columbus Circle. Police watched from the sidelines. Occupy Wall Street began a month ago in lower Manhattan among a few young people, and has grown to tens of thousands around the country and the world. A recent Associated Press-GfK poll says more than one-third of the country supports the Wall Street protesters, and even more‚ 58 percent‚ say they are furious about America’s politics.
But the encampment at Zuccotti Park has become more than a tolerable nuisance, some neighborhood residents say. At a meeting Thursday, they complained of protesters urinating in the streets and beating drums in the middle of the night. Some called for the protesters to vacate the park.
The area’s community board voted unanimously for a resolution that recognized the protesters’ First Amendment rights while calling for a crackdown on noise and public urination and defecation.
US Representative Jerrold Nadler, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer and state Senator Daniel Squadron said in a statement that the resolution was “an attempt to establish a sensible framework that respects the protesters’ fundamental rights while addressing the very real quality of life concerns.”
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