contributions

by Naomi Klein
Outside the 2,000-bed temporary shelter in Baton Rouge’s River Center, a Church of Scientology band is performing a version of Bill Withers’s classic "Use Me"—a refreshingly honest choice. "If it feels this good getting used," the Scientology singer belts out, "just keep on using me until you use me up."
Ten-year-old Nyler, lying face down on a massage table, has pretty much the same attitude. She is not quite sure why the nice lady in the yellow SCIENTOLOGY VOLUNTEER (…)

WASHINGTON - Opponents of the war in Iraq are marching by the tens of thousands Saturday in a clamorous day of protest, song and remembrance of the dead, some showing surprisingly diverse political views even as they spoke with one loud voice in wanting U.S. troops home.
The surging crowd, shouting “Bush out now” and “Peace now,” marched in front of the White House and then toward the Washington Monument in an 11-hour marathon of dissent.
They were young people with green hair, nuns (…)

by Ewen MacAskill, diplomatic editor
The Saudi government yesterday warned that Iraq is hurtling towards disintegration and that an election planned for December is unlikely to make any difference. The government said it was delivering this bleak assessment to both the US and British administrations as a matter of urgency.
Saudi fears of a break-up were voiced by Prince Saud al-Faisal, the foreign minister, in an interview with Associated Press published yesterday, and at a meeting on (…)

By Jason Leopold
Michael Brown, the embattled head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, approved payments in excess of $31 million in taxpayer money to thousands of Florida residents who were unaffected by Hurricane Frances and three other hurricanes last year in an effort to help President Bush win a majority of votes in that state during his reelection campaign, according to a May 19 story in the Washington Post that quoted DHS sources.
“Some Homeland Security sources said (…)

Mr. Roraima Albornoz Press Attaché VHEADLINE.COM
Dear Mr. Roraima Albornoz. I would like to send a big thank you to President Hugo Chavez, and the people of Venezuela, for the kindness and good will they have offered the citizens of the US who have suffered so much from Hurricane Katrina. I am from the City of Berkeley in California, known as the only city in the United States with its own foreign policy. We have adopted sister cities all over the world where US imperialism and foreign (…)

DO YOU FEEL SAFE?
By Peter Fredson
September 24, 2005
George Bush has been running a propaganda scam for years now, basically telling us that he will keep us safe while scaring the Hell out of us. Well, we have spent several billion dollars on airport security and what do we have to show for it: several bushel baskets full of nail clippers, manicure scissors, pocket knives and assorted sharp instruments for practical applications. How many terrorists has Bush caught with all that (…)

By William Fisher
Either President Bush just doesn’t get it, or he just doesn’t care, or he thinks the people he serves are all gullible morons.
He’s appointed his own Homeland Security Advisor, Ms. Frances Townsend, to lead the White House investigation into how the government screwed up with Hurricane Katrina ? and what to do about it.
Does the president really believe the American people will find such an investigation credible?
I’m sure Ms. Townsend is a very smart lady. She has (…)

by Wayne Besen
I look out of my window in Brooklyn and see a beam of light soaring skyward from the World Trade Center site. Following the tragedy of 9-11, I found this luminous image greatly inspiring, as it represented America’s steely determination to rebuild the Twin Towers and defeat Al Qaeda.
Four years later, this grand incandescent spectacle is just as symbolic. This time, however, it highlights George W. Bush’s utter failure to capitalize on the catastrophe to unify America and (…)

Roman Polanski’s astonishing film exquisitely captures both the anger and the cruel beauty of Dickens’ great novel.
By Stephanie Zacharek
Sometimes you look at a movie adaptation of a classic book and it’s as if you’re reading it with the filmmaker, turning the pages together. Roman Polanski’s "Oliver Twist" takes the useless question of whether reading is "better" than moviegoing and renders it academic: This is that rare movie version of a great novel in which watching is reading. (…)

by Danny Glover & Harry Belafonte
The following speeches were made during the PBS/BET-televised Higher Ground Hurricane Relief Benefit concert on Saturday, September 17, 2005
Danny Glover:
John Coltrane once said "the main thing a musician would like to do, is to give a picture to the listener of the many wonderful things he knows of and senses in the universe." When Miles Davis asked him why he played so long, Coltrane answered, "It took that long to get it all in."
New Orleans (…)