contributions

by John Nichols
It is hard to complain about a year that began with George Bush bragging about spending the "political capital" he felt he had earned with his dubious reelection and ended with the president drowning in the Nixonian depths of public disapproval.
But the circumstance didn’t just get better.
A handful of elected officials, activist groups and courageous citizens bent the arc of history toward justice.
Here are this one columnist’s picks for the Most Valuable (…)

There have been rumors that Bush has been drinking
again. Here is actual footage of him talking about
the Iraq elections in a very inebriated state.
Leuren
http://www.youtube.com/watch.php?v=KmIcYwBkfdM

by Wayne Madsen
In 2006, Tom DeLay will pay. And so will Bob Ney, and Mark Lay, and Ken Lay. Maybe by May, some people say.
And when they pay, let it be so. The same for Tom Noe and Texan Ted Poe. And Wally O’Dell and a Miller named Zell and Jodi Rell as well. Oh hell man, along with Ken Mehlman, it wouldn’t be daft to jail Bob Taft
Let’s hope none of them get off including Jack Abramoff and Michael Chertoff.
May they have a terrible New Year
And may we all turn giddy, at the (…)

This is the land of the free and the home of the brave? This is the “democracy” we’re killing people to spread around the world? by Keith Gottschalk
Sorry to interrupt what has been a very entertaining election season in Canada this holiday period, but I regret to inform you that your neighbour’s house is on fire.
As reported by Ron Hutcheson of the Knight Ridder new service on Tuesday: A defiant President Bush said he didn’t need explicit permission from Congress or the courts to (…)

By Avi Beker
The attack by AIPAC, the pro-Israel lobby in the U.S., on the Bush administration over its handling of the Iranian nuclear question, is unprecedented. It took the shape of a broad media campaign that included press releases and targeted members of Congress. Last week the Washington Post, which is read by the top political echelon in the capital, noted that this is the first time that AIPAC has issued broad and open criticism of the Bush administration. In a background paper (…)

By TONI LOCY
WASHINGTON (AP) - In his first year-end assessment of the federal judiciary, Chief Justice John Roberts urged Congress to increase judicial pay to help keep good judges on the bench and to recruit new ones.
Roberts, who succeeded the late William Rehnquist, warned Congress that judges’ pay is an issue that is driving them off the bench and deterring qualified lawyers from throwing their names into consideration for judgeships.
A strong and independent judiciary is not (…)

By Medea Benjamin
As we close this year, a year in which we were pummeled by the Iraq war, attacks on our civil rights, and Mother Nature’s fury of hurricanes, earthquakes and tsunamis, there is no shortage of reasons to feel bruised and beaten. But to start the New Year with a healthy determination to keep on fighting, we need to reflect on the good things that happened. And there are plenty.
One continent alone - South America - could provide more than ten examples of wonderful (…)

by Katha Pollitt
All year long it’s been one piece of bad news after another, but now it’s time to put on the rose-colored glasses and list some of the good things that happened in 2005. I had to e-mail about fifty people to come up with these items, but that’s OK. Keeping you cheerful is part of my job. I mean, the war could be wrong, but the Iraqi elections could still be good. So fill that glass half full with whatever and...and...well, just drink it.
1. The Bush Administration is on (…)

by Alec Baldwin
My prediction for 2006 is a multiple, all connected politically. I predict that another barrage of fierce storms and hurricanes will so disturb the American people, that the Democrats will take the Senate in the ’06 election and whittle away at the House in those races as well. Whether those storms can be attributed to global warming conditions or more normal meterological cycles will not matter. Americans typically arrive, albeit slowly at times, at the sensible conclusion (…)

Bush began 2005 celebrating his electoral victory and proclaiming a "turning point" in Iraq. But in every crisis he faced this year — from Terri Schiavo to Hurricane Katrina to Iraq — the tide turned against him
By Sidney Blumenthal
Dec. 29, 2005 | In his second inaugural address, George W. Bush four times summoned the image of fire — "a day of fire," "we have lit a fire," "fire in the minds of men," and "untamed fire." Over the course of the first year of his second term, all four of (…)