contributions

By KEVIN ZEESE
In an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal on November 28, Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-CT) put forward an argument for staying the course in Iraq. Of course, his argument in "Our Troops Must Stay" was filled with false information.
Lieberman describes "real progress" and "self-securing nationhood." What are the facts? Rep. Murtha laid them out clearly saying the "war in Iraq is not going as advertised" and, more specifically:
"Oil production and energy production are below (…)

By JOSHUA FRANK
It is far too early to tell what kind of impact it will ultimately have on the Republican establishment, but the Jack Abramoff scandal could well be the most perilous of all the storms developing around Washington. And the cloud forming on the horizon is a dark one indeed.
The most enthralling aspect of this whole controversy is the number of people it potentially involves. From elected officials in Congress to top conservative activists, the Abramoff lobbyist sham could (…)

by Kim Scipes
This past September, I wanted to write something about the juxtaposition of the extremely successful mobilization against the war in Iraq on September 24th with the failed mobilization the following day in support of the war. A phrase kept running in my head from someone progressives do not generally quote: Winston Churchill. After the British defeat of the German Afrika Korps in Egypt in November 1942, during World War II, Churchill stated, "Now this is not the end. It (…)

Voting Rights Finding On Map Pushed by DeLay Was Overruled
By Dan Eggen
Justice Department lawyers concluded that the landmark Texas congressional redistricting plan spearheaded by Rep. Tom DeLay (R) violated the Voting Rights Act, according to a previously undisclosed memo obtained by The Washington Post. But senior officials overruled them and approved the plan.
The memo, unanimously endorsed by six lawyers and two analysts in the department’s voting section, said the redistricting (…)

by Haider Rizvi
UNITED NATIONS, Dec 1 (IPS) - Millions of people living with HIV/AIDS in poor parts of the world could lose their lives in the next few years if governments fail to keep their promises to fight the deadly pandemic, warn U.N. officials and health advocacy groups.
In the absence of treatment, as many as 74 million people could die from HIV/AIDS-related causes by 2015, according to the Geneva-based International Labour Organisation (ILO), which notes that young workers are (…)

By Andrew Gumbel in Los Angeles
Hollywood actors, musicians, church leaders and death penalty opponents staged protests and vigils across the US on behalf of Stanley "Tookie" Williams, founder of the Crips street gang who faces execution in less than two weeks unless the California governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, can be persuaded to grant him clemency.
The outpouring of support for "International Save Tookie Day" yesterday underlined the controversy surrounding Williams’s death sentence (…)

By Maura Reynolds and Richard B. Schmitt
WASHINGTON - As a Reagan administration lawyer, Supreme Court nominee Samuel A. Alito Jr. argued forcefully against the high court’s landmark decision legalizing abortion and laid out a strategy to overturn Roe vs. Wade.
In a lengthy 1985 memo, Alito - then an assistant solicitor general - urged the Justice Department to defend states seeking to put restrictions on the procedure, saying that the Supreme Court’s rulings did not mean that abortion (…)

by AFL-CIO
As part of International Human Rights Day, Dec. 10, the union movement is mobilizing to demand workers are guaranteed a fundamental human right: The freedom to have a union voice on the job. At rallies, town hall meetings, candlelight vigils and teach-ins across the nation, union members and their allies will highlight the obstacles workers face when seeking to join a union at work and showcase strategies for the overcoming those obstacles.
Workers taking part in Dec. 10 (…)

By William Fisher
Washington is a town where the best and the brightest usually coexist with well-connected political hacks. However, the Bush administration has taken promotion of the latter to embarrassing extremes, selecting unqualified people for posts because of their political loyalty and ideological persuasion. The most recent example of this was the appointment of Paul Bonicelli to be deputy director of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which is in (…)

by SEYMOUR M. HERSH
In recent weeks, there has been widespread speculation that President George W. Bush, confronted by diminishing approval ratings and dissent within his own party, will begin pulling American troops out of Iraq next year. The Administration’s best-case scenario is that the parliamentary election scheduled for December 15th will produce a coalition government that will join the Administration in calling for a withdrawal to begin in the spring. By then, the White House (…)