Molotov Cocktails

• Showdown in Ohio-Crossing the moat

Hundreds of people have gathered today to protest JP Morgan Chase shareholder's meeting as part the Showdown in Ohio.  The crazy thing: the meeting is being held at the JP Morgan Chase McCoy Center is the second largest flat office building in the nation.  Only the Pentagon is larger.  And the building is surrounded by a moat!  So how do these homeowners, clergy members, unions members and more, cross the moat? They build a bridge!  Check out a couple pictures taken just minutes ago.

• Israeli Troops Shoot U.S. Student in Head with High-Velocity Tear Gas Canister

"I was shot at close range with a high-velocity metal tear gas canister... When it hit me, it tore off a part of my scalp," says Christopher Whitman, a 25-year-old American student and activist who was seriously injured when he was shot by Israeli forces while attending a West Bank protest on Friday. 

• Israelis Troops Arrest 11 Civilians from the West Bank; Tanks Open Fire at Gaza Farmers

Israeli troops arrested on Tuesday 11 Palestinian civilians during raids targeting West Bank communities.Six of those arrested were taken from the village of al-Khader, near Bethlehem in southern West Bank. Israeli troops invaded the village and searched homes

• Their Independence is our Nakba

• Arab Revolution Knocking at Israel's Door

It was a Sunday, bloody Sunday - with no uplifting U2 anthem to "celebrate" it. In Palestine, Syria and Lebanon, tens of thousands of Palestinians marched to the borders with Israel to mark the anniversary of the 1948 Nakba -- the displacement that accompanied the creation of Israel.

The Israeli response, with "maximum restraint": killing 10 people in Lebanon, eight in Syria, two in Gaza and one in the West Bank, and injuring over 200. The Anglo-French-American consortium waging war on Libya because Colonel Muammar Gaddafi allegedly kills his own people was thunderously mute.

• On the Political Economics of Dominique Strauss-Kahn's Political Death

Normally, the "elimination" of an IMF Managing Director would have no more than a passing effect on the institution.  I suspect that DSK's demise will be different.  It is not just that DSK is a heavyweight who has pushed the IMF into a different mode of thinking (taking a more nuanced approach to the deeper causes of crises).  Far more significant is the manner in which he seems to understand what makes the global economy tick.

• The U.S. And Its Allies Will Do Anything to Prevent Democracy

The U.S. and its allies will do anything they can to prevent authentic democracy in the Arab world. The reason is very simple. Across the region, an overwhelming majority of the population regards the United States as the main threat to their interests. In fact, opposition to U.S. policy is so high that a considerable majority think the region would be more secure if Iran had nuclear weapons. In Egypt, the most important country, that’s 80 percent. Similar figures elsewhere. There are some in the region who regard Iran as a threat—about 10 percent. Well, plainly, the U.S. and its allies are not going to want governments which are responsive to the will of the people. If that happens, not only will the U.S. not control the region, but it will be thrown out. So that’s obviously an intolerable result.