ZP Heller is the editorial director of Brave New Films. He has written for The Nation, The American Prospect, AlterNet, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and The Huffington Post, covering everything from politics to pop culture.

Blog Entries by ZP Heller

Don't Let Wells Fargo Be a Roadblock to Economic Recovery

1 Comments | Posted July 14, 2009 | 12:08 PM (EST)


Wells Fargo is a roadblock to economic recovery. That's what members of the United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers (UE) are claiming, as they literally blocked a busy Rock Island, Illinois, intersection late last week to protest Wells Fargo's decision to cut off credit to the Quad City Die Casting...

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Juan Cole on Iranian Protests and the Reform Movement's Future

6 Comments | Posted July 9, 2009 | 05:31 PM (EST)


Thousands of Iranian protesters marched toward Tehran University today, both to commemorate the 1999 student uprising and to continue their opposition toward the recently stolen presidential election. Once again, the Iranian regime has responded with violence, as Basij militia members dispersed demonstrators with live fire, tear gas, and other...

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U.S. Military Escalation Leads to Record Civilian Deaths in Afghanistan

20 Comments | Posted June 29, 2009 | 07:04 PM (EST)


According to the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan and a newly released UN report, there were 800 civilian casualties between January and May 2009. Armed clashes between insurgents, the U.S. military, and the ISAF are up 24 percent this year, and have displaced tens of thousands...

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Take Action: Demand an Exit Strategy in Afghanistan

3 Comments | Posted June 24, 2009 | 03:04 PM (EST)


Though the Pentagon finally took responsibility for the Afghan civilian deaths in last month's Farah province airstrikes, we're only seeing minor adjustments toward a deeply flawed military strategy in need of a complete overhaul.

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Helping Afghan Refugees as US Bombs Continue to Fall

Posted June 19, 2009 | 05:07 PM (EST)


Since 2001, the US Air Force has dropped nearly 31 million pounds (14,049 metric tons) of bombs on Afghanistan. The UN estimates that US airstrikes alone accounted for 64 percent of the 828 Afghan civilians killed last year. Those numbers practically scream the need to abandon conventional warfare tactics in...

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How to Help Afghans When Congress Approves $100 Billion More in War

1 Comments | Posted June 17, 2009 | 11:50 AM (EST)


$100 billion more in wartime spending. That's what Congress is hellbent on approving despite valiant efforts from a growing number of Progressives led by FireDogLake's Jane Hamsher to derail this legislation's passage in the House. $100 billion, and for what? To bring more troops to Afghanistan without an exit...

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Why Isn't This on CNN? Afghan Refugee Describes Recent US Bombings

8 Comments | Posted June 10, 2009 | 06:08 PM (EST)


Why isn't this footage on CNN or MSNBC? Why can't the American public have easy access to it? Those are questions we should be asking ourselves as we watch the powerful images of Abdullah Khan, a refugee from Afghanistan's Helmland province forced to seek shelter in an IDP camp outside...

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EXCLUSIVE VIDEO: Air Raid Victim Tells Obama to Leave Afghanistan

1 Comments | Posted June 9, 2009 | 06:46 PM (EST)


Here is a face of the war in Afghanistan. Najibullah, an air raid victim from the Malwand district of Kandahar, points to where three bombs shattered his home during a recent US airstrike. His message to President Obama: Withdraw US forces from Afghanistan at once. "They're going to leave anyway,"...

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Female Afghan MP Warns Congress of Dire Situation After US Airstrikes

1 Comments | Posted June 4, 2009 | 11:59 AM (EST)


Just who is Dr. Roshanak Wardak? She is a member of Afghanistan's parliament -- one of 68 women in the lower house -- committed to women's rights issues, as well as rebuilding schools and hospitals. Before turning to politics, Dr. Wardak was a gynecologist who practiced for 30...

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Under Mounting Pressure, Starbucks Settles Yet Another Labor Dispute

12 Comments | Posted June 3, 2009 | 11:40 AM (EST)


Here comes my coffee spit take for the day. Starbucks just settled its sixth labor dispute in the past three years! According to the settlement, Starbucks must now allow Minneapolis-area workers to discuss unions and post union materials in break areas, and the company can no longer kick union sympathizers...

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Ex-Interrogators Are Mad as Hell About Torture, and They're Not Gonna Take Cheney Anymore

51 Comments | Posted May 29, 2009 | 06:11 PM (EST)


More and more, former interrogators and counterinsurgency experts are using Dick Cheney's recent ubiquity to expose his iniquity regarding the torture and abuse of detainees. Earlier this week, I wrote about Major Matthew Alexander, the former Senior Interrogator who conducted over 300 interrogations in Iraq and supervised 1,000 more....

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Starbucks's Health Care Policy Is Sickening

5 Comments | Posted May 27, 2009 | 06:20 PM (EST)


Since Brave New Films launched Stop Starbucks last week, over 50,000 people watched the video, "What do Starbucks and Wal-Mart have in common?" and 15,000 signed the petition insisting CEO Howard Schultz support his workers' unionization efforts. The latest video, "Starbucks' Health Care Policy Is Sickening," takes...

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Former Interrogator Slams Cheney Over Torture Policy

5 Comments | Posted May 26, 2009 | 05:42 PM (EST)


Let's debunk Dick Cheney's pernicious lies about torture once and for all. Let's look past the mainstream media frenzy over the personal feud between Obama and Cheney, past the ludicrous GOP talking points, and instead focus on a real story that could allow us to hold Cheney accountable. Major...

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Spilling the Beans About Starbucks' Union-Busting Tactics

9 Comments | Posted May 19, 2009 | 06:14 PM (EST)


Put down that grande non-fat caramel macchiato or whatever Starbucks concoction you're drinking. Turns out the coffee giant has a nasty history of being anti-barista, anti-union, and thus anti-Employee Free Choice Act as well.

The National Labor Relations Board has repeatedly found Starbucks guilty of illegally terminating, harassing,...

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Vets Rally Behind McGovern's Bill for an Exit Strategy in Afghanistan

4 Comments | Posted May 14, 2009 | 08:48 PM (EST)


U.S. airstrikes slaughtered 95 Afghan children in the Farah province last week, leaving a total of 140 civilians dead. And yet as Tom Hayden pointed out in The Nation this week, our Democrat-dominated Congress seems unwilling to criticize the Obama administration as it rushes to approve $94.2...

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94 Billion Reasons to Rethink Afghanistan

7 Comments | Posted May 11, 2009 | 12:00 PM (EST)


US airstrikes in Afghanistan like the one that killed over 100 civilians last week have reached all-time destructive highs. According to Air Forces Central, US warplanes dropped a record 438 bombs in Afghanistan during April. The number of dropped bombs has increased steadily over the past few months,...

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Cost of War in Afghanistan: Over $172 Billion and Counting

Posted May 6, 2009 | 05:51 PM (EST)


Here's something everyone in Congress needs to see as they consider President Obama's $83.4 billion supplemental war funding bill. National Priorities Project (NPP) just released The Cost of War in Afghanistan, a report examining the exorbitant human and economic costs of this rapidly expanding war, which estimates...

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The Perils of Predator Drones in Pakistan

8 Comments | Posted May 5, 2009 | 06:01 PM (EST)


The situation in Pakistan is deteriorating by the hour. This nuclear-armed nation already plagued by political and economic turmoil now faces a massive humanitarian crisis, as 500,000 people flee the Swat valley in the face of armed conflict between Pakistani authorities and Taliban extremists who have taken control. As...

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Progressive Victory: Bank of America's Ken Lewis Out as Chairman

2 Comments | Posted April 29, 2009 | 06:52 PM (EST)


"Bank of America's in a spiral, this greed's going viral!" That was the chant from protesters outside Bank of America's shareholders meeting today. It was the culmination of dozens of demonstrations across the country led by Take Back the Economy and SEIU to Fire Ken Lewis, Bank...

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The Failure of Obama's First 100 Days in Afghanistan

9 Comments | Posted April 29, 2009 | 10:21 AM (EST)


Where is the Change President when it comes to Afghanistan? In President Obama's first 100 days, we have seen more U.S. raids and air strikes that kill innocent Afghan civilians, fueling animosity toward the U.S. as violence is up 79 percent across Afghanistan when compared to the same period...

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