"Many well-informed and insightful people are now hoping that the current healthcare bill will become law and then lead to something better. But few backers want to dwell on its requirement that everyone get health coverage from the private insurance industry -- a stunning, deeply structural transfer of humongous power and wealth that would greatly boost the leverage of an already autocratic corporate state."

"...I draw the line at dual citizenship, voting and running for office in another country. If someone wants to do that, they can. But not from here. You make a choice and live with the consequences. To repeat: You cast your vote where you cast your lot. Anything else degrades the meaning of citizenship and rights of citizens here and there."

"Martin Luther King Jr. aptly likened the Vietnam War to a “demonic suction tube.” And demonic suction tubes can’t be boxed. In the real world, war’s ripple effects lead to a kaleidoscope of terrible consequences, near and far. You can’t keep a war in a box any more than you can deliver a government in a box."

The 2010 Winter Olympics was like a huge economic and public relations prize carrot that the organizers dangled in front of us and expected us to chase after. The games was not so much a 17-day sports event that happened to take place in my corner of the world as it was the climax of an enervating four-year sensory assault of cheerleading, advertising and sloganeering.

"...we should have learned from the Oslo period, if the daily life experiences of people are worsening, negotiations will be negatively impacted. Throughout the 1990’s as settlements in the West Bank doubled in size and a network of Jewish-only roads were being constructed, carving the area into pieces, severely constricting Palestinian mobility; and Israel’s closure had caused economic stagnation, a doubling of Palestinian unemployment and a severe decline in personal income – I warned U.S. negotiators not to ignore these troubling facts."

"It is vitally important to pierce through the cloud of obfuscation and inflated rhetoric of the past decade and to advance a clearer understanding of who we are as a people and the exact nature of our role in the world. The reality we will discover is neither Bush’s divinely ordained America with its saving mission nor Palin’s more narrowly defined chauvinism."

"This year, with the escalating occupation of Afghanistan widely believed to be on automatic policy pilot, conscience is fashionably cloaked with acquiescence. Many in Congress who say they don’t support the war keep voting to fund it -- and keep their voices muffled. The brandished wrath of the House Speaker or the White House chief of staff is most effective as a preemptive club."

"Facing stiff opposition from both Republicans and members of his own party, the President, it appears has settled on a plan that instead of closing Guantanamo, would merely move it to a new location – a maximum security prison in Illinois. To facilitate the move and the continued detention of inmates, there are reports that the White House is working with a Republican senator to craft legislation that would allow for “prolonged detention without charge or trial” – a practice long used by Israel and criticized by the U.S. and human rights organizations as a violation of international law and convention. And while no new prisoners have been added to Guantanamo, it appears that this is because Baghram prison in Afghanistan is serving as the new Guantanamo, with prisoners captured in other countries being flown to Baghram for interrogation and detention."