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A nationwide one-day strike in France has disrupted travel and business and dealt the first major challenge to the economic program of Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin.
Official figures showed turn-out from the public sector, with 30 percent of railway staff and teachers, 23 percent of electricity workers and between 15 and 30 percent of post office staff joining the stoppages.
Demonstrations were staged in cities from Marseille in the south to Le Havre in the north, with the largest (…)

Shocking the Two Party System October 4, 2005
A Political Opportunity for Cindy Sheehan and the Antiwar Movement
Shocking the Two Party System
By NIKOLAS KOZLOFF
In recent years, progressive third party efforts have hardly left a dent in the American political system. Recent polling data however suggest that the American electorate is restless and anxiously waiting for a change. The only thing which is missing is the spark and organizational vehicle. If progressives are smart, they (…)

by Dr. Ben "Go Fu*k Yourself Cheney" Marble
opednews
There has been a considerable discrepancy between the 1172 individuals reported as ’missing’ in Harrison County, MS. and the 96 confirmed fatalities.
This, of course, has led many people to wonder where those people might be located? My own personal theory was that as the 30+ feet storm surge receded many of the people were likely swept out to sea into the Mississippi Sound. For example, I had heard of one report of an Asian woman (…)

Tomgram: Ira Chernus on Where Fear Can’t Take Us
A world of fear: By the end of 1953, the United States had close to 1,000 A-bombs, H-bombs, and "tactical" nuclear weapons. I was 9 years old. The effects of Hiroshima and Nagasaki had, by then, largely disappeared under a cloud of official secrecy, as had evidence of atomic dangers in the United States, where test blasts were already being set off with remarkable regularity. And yet in private dreams and popular culture, a lack of (…)

Loss of bodies adds to grief of many families. Authorities have few answers
By DAVID ZUCCHINO and NICHOLAS RICCARDI
BATON ROUGE, La. - When he finally could leave his post guarding a nuclear power plant after Hurricane Katrina struck, Richard George Reysack III sped to the flooded home of his 80-year-old father east of New Orleans. Slogging through the muck, he found his father’s corpse face-down in the hallway.
As devastating as that discovery was, at least Reysack had his father’s (…)

Yesterday I thanked the 6 House Democrats—Lee, Conyers, Woolsey, Grijalva, McKinney & Waters—who joined 300,000 of us at the antiwar march/rally/concert last weekend. We do appreciate it.
Today I want to ask the obvious follow-up question, which several commenters also raised—where were the rest of the House & Senate Dems?
There are 202 House Democrats, plus 1 Independent, plus several nonvoting House Dems. Plus, there are 44 Senate Democrats, plus 1 Independent.
A grand total (…)

In case anyone thought Harriet Miers wasn’t a corporate-shill-in-White-House-clothing, take a gander at how Miers did her best Ken Lay impression while heading a major Texas corporate law firm. That’s right, according to the 5/1/00 newsletter Class Action Reporter, Miers headed Locke, Liddell & Sapp at the time the firm was forced to pay $22 million to settle a suit asserting that "it aided a client in defrauding investors."
The details of the case are both nauseating and highly (…)

Bill O’Reilly defames our WWII troops
In his debate last night with Wesley Clark, Bill said this to prove his point:
Clark: And let me explain something. You go all the way up the chain of command
O’Reilly: General! You need to look at the Malmedy massacre in World War Two, and the 82nd Airborne who did it! That is a flat out lie. (thanks to (Mccarthy.vg ) It was the Nazi soldiers that committed the massacre on US troops and not the 82nd Airborn on the Germans. Bill you just used false (…)

1) The administration was not bent on war with Iraq from 9/11 onward.
Throughout the year leading up to war, the White House publicly maintained that the U.S. took weapons inspections seriously, that diplomacy would get its chance, that Saddam had the opportunity to prevent a U.S. invasion. The most pungent and concise evidence to the contrary comes from the president’s own mouth. According to Time’s March 31 road-to-war story, Bush popped in on national security adviser Condi Rice one day (…)

by Jeff Huber 03 October 2005
10. Democracy takes time. America needed 13 years to write its Constitution. The American Revolution analogy is ludicrous. Britain did not invade the American colonies in order to liberate us, and we did not ask them to stick around for more than a decade to help us form our government.
9. If we leave now, we’ll embolden the terrorists. They’re not exactly shrinking violets now. The longer we’ve stayed, the bolder they’ve become.
8. Withdrawing will show (…)