contributions

by Norman Solomon The men and women of the National Guard shouldn’t be killing in Iraq.
They should be helping in New Orleans and Biloxi.
The catastrophic hurricane was an act of God. But the U.S. war effort in Iraq is a continuing act of the president. And now, that effort is hampering the capacity of the National Guard to save lives at home.
Before the flooding of New Orleans drastically escalated on Tuesday, the White House tried to disarm questions that could be politically (…)

By THOM SHANKER
WASHINGTON The value of military weapons sales worldwide jumped in 2004 to the highest level since 2000, driven by arms deals with developing nations, especially India, Saudi Arabia and China, according to a new Congressional study.
The total of arms sales and weapons transfer agreements to both industrialized and developing nations was nearly $37 billion in 2004, according to the study.
That total was the largest since 2000, when global arms sales reached $42.1 (…)

by MARCELLO MEGA
A FORMER Scottish police chief has given lawyers a signed statement claiming that key evidence in the Lockerbie bombing trial was fabricated.
The retired officer - of assistant chief constable rank or higher - has testified that the CIA planted the tiny fragment of circuit board crucial in convicting a Libyan for the 1989 mass murder of 270 people.
The police chief, whose identity has not yet been revealed, gave the statement to lawyers representing Abdelbaset Ali (…)

by Oscar Reyes
Tariq Ramadan is one Europe’s leading progressive Muslim scholars. He talked to Oscar Reyes about integration, multiculturalism and the role of the global justice movement after the London bombings.
The British government says the London terror attacks have nothing to do with its foreign policy, the press chastises talk of the alienation among young Muslims, and Muslim leaders say the attacks have nothing to do with Islam. What steps need to be taken to move beyond these (…)

By Jason Leopold
Cindy Sheehan has been subjected to an unwarranted backlash by right-wing pundits because of her antiwar protests and some explosive statements she made about President Bush. Perhaps Sheehan, while mourning the death of her son, Casey, a U.S. soldier who died in the Iraq war, lashed out at the president, and decided to take her antiwar message to Crawford, Texas, after doing some fact checking on her emotional state. If so, these are likely some of the circumstances that (…)

Pop quiz:
1. 1968 Bobby Kennedy was shot and killed by
a. Superman b. Jay Leno c. Harry Potter d. a Muslim male extremist between the ages of 17 and 40
2. In 1972 at the Munich Olympics, athletes were kidnapped and massacred by
a. Olga Corbett b. Sitting Bull c. Arnold Schwarzenegger d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40
3. In 1979, the US embassy in Iran was taken over by:
a. Lost Norwegians b. Elvis c. A tour bus full of 80-year-old women d. Muslim male (…)

It appears that the money has been moved in the president’s budget to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq, and I suppose that’s the price we pay. Nobody locally is happy that the levees can’t be finished, and we are doing everything we can to make the case that this is a security issue for us. Walter Maestri, emergency management chief for Jefferson Parish, Louisiana; New Orleans Times-Picayune, June 8, 2004
Over the last coupla days there has been some wailing and gnashing of (…)

CRAWFORD - Cindy Sheehan has received a letter of support from Karl W. B. Schwarz, a former Republican, who earlier this year announced his independent candidacy for President, subject to the 2008 election.
Schwarz is author of the book "One Way Ticket to Crawford, Texas."
He wrote to Sheehan: "I have been watching with admiration your brave stand against President Bush and his refusal, and even fear, of speaking with any of the persons who have lost loved ones in Iraq and Afghanistan on (…)

I’m confused.
The news report today, that in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, said that five million people in the Gulf states would be without power for 6 to 8 weeks, was followed by an advisement that gas for your car, home heating oil and natural gas prices would rise.
Maybe I’m not the brightest bulb in the box, but aren’t we still in a free-market, supply and demand economy? And with five million people not using much of our precious energy supplies - not driving, not using (…)

By Monica Benderman
In an amusement park that I used to take our kids to, there was a roller coaster ride called the “Corkscrew.” It turned, and twisted and even reversed itself and went backwards after the first full cycle of track was completed. We would stand in line for an hour just to have a 3 minute ride, only to get back in the hour long line and do it again. We paid for this, and at the end of the day, I wondered why as we left the park with heads spinning and knees trying to (…)