Politics is one of the most frustrating, intriguing and enlightening topics to write about. I live in hope that young people will become more aware of who their politicians are, and passionate about using their voices.

For those of you who have entered a P2P site (Peer to Peer), you
will know the difference between a "leecher" and a "seeder". The name
is what it suggests. A "leecher" downloads a file from another peer,
while a "seeder" will be uploading to file to another peer.
Most files connect leechers to anywhere between 2 a... continue reading

On
Tuesday 12 September, the ABC's 'The World Today' program's Eleanor
Hall spoke with US-based genocide scholar, Dr Sam Totten about the
escalating violence in Dafur. A podcast is available also on http://www.abc.net.au.



ELEANOR HALL: In
the past few hours the United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan ... continue reading

It is easy to lose hope in
the political system these days. Political leaders with enough impeachable
offences under their belt to have them locked away for life are instead
becoming entrenched in long-term positions. They are becoming untouchable.
Worse, not only are they not listening to the population, they ... continue reading

If
you haven’t taken a good look at the US government’s plan for social
security, and you’re under 50, then you ought to. The White House
website is a good place to start, but don’t get bogged down by the
rhetoric before you get to read between the lines.





President
Bush claims that he will listen to a... continue reading

“It is an extraordinary thing that unless you have a Ph.D. in some
scientific discipline, no one takes you seriously. Unfortunately, you
cannot at present obtain a Ph.D. in common sense. If you could, it
might then entitle you to point out that the prevailing world view,
which since Descartes expressly forbids the ... continue reading

In a joint statement made in an advertisement in the LA Times this
week, some of Hollywood's most powerful actors, producers, directors,
studio bosses and media moguls condemned terrorism. Why don't we call
terrorism what it is - the new red menace - and then we'll all know
we're back in the throws of McCarthyism a... continue reading

A report released in August by Human Rights Watch (HRW) on the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) bombing of Lebanon has pointed out what anyone with any common sense can conclude: that Israel is in violation of international humanitarian law. It is, in its most basic form, strong evidence for the United Nations to pick up th... continue reading

Why
does the countryside seem to only reside our retirement dreams? We take a look
at agriculture, subsidies and the latest negotiations at the Doha Round.


There’s a problem brewing in
the countryside of all major industrialised nations. Where I come from, the
countryside used to be teeming with people, yo... continue reading

Sony has become one of the most ambitious corporations worldwide inthe fight to reduce their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by joiningthe World Wildlife Fund's "Climate Savers" program. In a joint pressconference
in Tokyo on Monday this week, Sony announced they will commit to
absolute target emission reductions in b... continue reading

The Isreali bombing of Lebanon has only just begun. We can be certain that, with the outright support of its largest benefactor, the United States, Isreal will just keep on dropping those bombs on Lebanese civilians.
Now let’s make something clear. Everyone has a right to a resistance. If your backyard was invaded, I... continue reading

I would like to try a little experiment with you, dear
readers, if I may. Occasionally some comments filter through about this and
that, but really they are pretty minimal, which for me suggests that a door
should be opened, into which you should feel comfortable enough to tread. In
your hip pocket, I would jus... continue reading

North
Korean leader Kim Jong-Il has yet again stirred up the waters in the
Sea of Japan this week, firing not just one or two missiles into the
morning sky on Wednesday, but seven by the time the day was done.





In
a move that has been widely denounced by the international community,
the irony that the ... continue reading

You might be forgiven for thinking congressional
senators had little to do these days. What, with fighting an illegal
war, sending the country into a downward spiral of economic chaos and
whittling away civil liberties with a hunting knife and all. But no,
they have rustled up the time to have a great, big, long ch... continue reading

The humble email is a sign of extraordinary times. It acts like a huge chain of information that spreads out across the world in a way that our forbearers would have thought impossible. Individuals and groups can get their messages out to people in a much more effective way -- particularly when it comes to the petition... continue reading

Just over six months ago, Harold Pinter, the author of such classic
plays as 'The Caretaker' and 'The Dumb Waiter', won the 2005 Nobel
Prize for Literature. Winner of the
2005 Nobel
Prize for Literature,
Harold Pinter Not one to waste an opportunity, Pinter gave the
acceptance speech of a lifetime, slamming th... continue reading

It's 2011. The Iraq war has been going for 8
years, and is spreading. A self confessed enemy of the corporate world, the
young and cocky blog journalist Jimmy Burns, unwittingly finds himself at the
right place at the right time.




Standing outside his apartment, streaming live to his blog
with his new ca... continue reading

The US military may have changed the name of the School of the Americas (SOA) to the 'Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation' (WHINSEC) and added a few token human rights courses to the curriculum, but shedding the dark and bloody past of the institution responsible for training some of Latin America's m... continue reading

It’s a little over four years since the failed military coup took place in Venezuela. On April 11, 2002, the head of the Chamber of Commerce, Pedro Carmona, and Carlos Ortega, head of CTV, a trade union with strong political ties to the old political establishment in the country, forcefully removed from office the most... continue reading

In a dramatic twist in the long and drawn out saga that is the Valerie Plame case, Karl Rove was charged this week with perjury and lying to investigators about how and when he discovered that Ms Plame, also known as Ms Wilson, was a CIA operative and whether he shared that information with reporters, reported Truthout... continue reading

Smokin�f Mirrors:

A Tribute to Marla Ruzicka (1976-2005)

I
confess that a year ago, when I heard of the tragic death of a woman I
had never heard of before that night, I cried. Marla Ruzicka, a young
Californian woman, was killed by a car bomb in Baghdad on April 16
2005, along with her friend and co-worke... continue reading

There’s
a strange tale unfolding south of the border in Pueblo, Mexico – a tale
of corruption, abduction and plots of assassination. Far from being the
inspiration of the next big Hollywood flop, this tale is for real, and
for those involved, it’s deadly.




According to a report by John Gibler in Znet la... continue reading

If The Telegraph
in Calcutta, India, is anything to go by, George W Bush is a handsome,
rock-star-esque man – powerful and yet humble. Reports centre on an
impetuous kiss on the cheek he received from a woman, while “[f]or a
split second, the most powerful man in the world was stunned. The next,
he gracefully pull... continue reading

One of the most highly educated and celebrated African women of all time, Prof. Wanagri Maathai is probably best known for founding the Green Belt Movement (GBM) in 1977, which has empowered women to plant over 30 million trees across Kenya.

In 2002, Prof. Maathai took her fight for conservation to the polls, and... continue reading

Hello and welcome to the political column of Cheers Magazine. I'm
Willie, and I would like to thank Cheers for allowing me to do what
every reporter would love to: write about politics. That is, unless you
want to write about fashion. No offence to the fashionistas out there!
For the first column, I am going to ent... continue reading

For most people, Australia conjures up images of a big red centre, populated by various versions of Mick Dundee or Steve Irwin.
It's tougher than that.
It takes four days to get
from Sydney to Perth--east to west--and few musicians in Australia
these days take on the gritty, tough audiences of rural and outback
... continue reading