Kevin Gosztola

Iraq War Logs from Wikileaks were made public yesterday and document 109,000 deaths, including 66,000 civilian deaths, of which 15,000 were previously unknown. The more than 390,000 field reports from US military reveal the truth about the Iraq War from 2004 to 2009, which Wikileaks’ Julian Assange hopes will correct attacks “on the truth that occurred before the war, during the war, and which [have] continued on since the war officially concluded.”

Despite recent polls indicating major support for candidates who could provide an alternative to the Democrats or Republicans, incidents against candidates running in the 2010 midterm election continue to persist. One of the most recent incidents is the arrest of California gubernatorial candidate Laura Wells.

Like a BP oil gusher, foreign money is allegedly flowing into the midterm elections. Heavyweight interests with the muscle to influence legislation to suit their agenda, like the Chamber of Commerce, are at the center of this foreign money gusher putting Republicans over the top in many of the elections where Democratic incumbents are now endangered. Another corporate money gusher, unsurprisingly, is coming as a result of Karl Rove’s and the Koch Brothers’ attempts to influence the outcome of the election.

Weeks after the FBI raided their home, two Chicago
activists, Stephanie Weiner and Joe Iosbaker, stood before a crowd of about 150
Chicagoans gathered outside the Dirksen Federal Building and declared during a
press conference they, and twelve others who were subpoenaed, have no intention to go before any grand juries and participate in a “fishing expedition.”

Interview with Medea Benjamin, co-founder of CODE PINK and “fair trade” advocacy organization Global Exchange, at the “One Nation Working Together” rally at the Lincoln Memorial on October 2nd.

This rally provided group therapy for community organizers and Obama supporters looking for a way to reaffirm their dedication to hope and change. It was not only a chance to unify around the need for jobs, education, environmental protections and clean energy, immigrant rights, college affordability, etc. but also a chance to reclaim history…

An article written by Susan M. Reverby, a professor of women’s studies at Wellesley College, has uncovered details on a study conducted between 1946 and 1948 in Guatemala, which involved experiments on Guatemalans. Essentially, the Public Health Service (PHS) inoculated people with syphilis.

One month before the midterm elections, hundreds of organizations–many of them major organizations the Democratic Party needs to help them get-out-the-vote (GOTV) for November–will send a message to Democrats: No matter how much you beat upon the base for raising its voice and offering healthy criticism, progressives will still vote for you.

Over a thousand Appalachian residents and activists participated in a rally and march in Washington, D.C. on Monday, September 27th. The action was the culmination of a multi-day convergence that had been put together by a coalition known as Appalachia Rising, which organized the activity to advance the movement to abolish mountaintop removal coal mining in the United States.

The coal industry, especially corporations like Massey Energy, have an interest in using the agencies of counterterrorism to target activists for conspiring to commit acts of “domestic terrorism.” Corporations like Massey Energy have lobbied for support from federal law enforcement so that they can be protected from the threat posed to them by a movement to end mountaintop removal.