contributions

by William Johnson
Automation is transforming working conditions for the thousands of union members who keep the New York subways running. On June 19, the system’s “L” line between Brooklyn and Manhattan began running trains without conductors, leaving train operators as the only crew on board.
Currently, One-Person Train Operation (OPTO) is functioning on the L only during weekends and after midnight, but train operator Tim Schermerhorn believes that once New York’s Metropolitan (…)

By GREG MOSES
Actually that wasn’t the headline. According to Yahoo News, the USA President thinks intelligent design should be taught in schools. That was the headline. And I have no problem with that. In a perfect world, it would be taught in schools And for just the reasons that Bush gives to the AP:
"I think that part of education is to expose people to different schools of thought," Bush said. "You’re asking me whether or not people ought to be exposed to different ideas, the answer (…)

By Ruth Sinai
In 2004, 1.534 million people in Israel lived below the poverty line, according to a National Insurance Institution (NII) poverty report released Monday.
The figure attests to a substantial rise in poverty rates, with 100,000 more poor Israelis in 2004 than there were in 2003.
The report also shows that the number of poor families make up 20.3 percent of Israel’s population. The number of children living in poor families has reached 700,000.
After six years of relative (…)

By Adele Horin
Eleven years ago, Allegra Milne-Salter’s uplifting story featured in the Herald. As a six-year-old with quadriplegic cerebral palsy, she had been accepted into mainstream classes at Kelso Public School, near Bathurst, as part of a new policy of inclusion.
"She needs to be in the world, and the world needs her, too," her mother Sally said at the time.
Now in year 12 at Kelso High School, Allegra is 17 and, like all "life skills" students, will finish school next month. (…)

By Julie Hyland
The admission that army special forces were involved in the police execution of Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes confirms that the techniques perfected in the dirty war conducted by British imperialism in Northern Ireland are now being employed on the streets of Britain.
The Guardian reported August 4 that “a new army special forces regiment was involved in the operation” that resulted in de Menezes being killed with eight bullets, seven to the head, in a London subway (…)

by David R. Hoffman legal Editor of Pravda.Ru
During the build-up to the illegal invasion of Iraq, some, particularly in the foreign media, accused Bush of wanting war simply for the sake of war
Prologue
As I was researching and preparing notes for this article, the bombings in London occurred. In the wake of these tragic events, I became outraged by the number of right-wing warmongers in America who callously exploited these attacks in a vacuous attempt to justify the Bush (…)

By William Fisher
Hooray, a win for science!
At last, there is something nice I can say about John H. Marburger III, President Bush’s science advisor.
It’s about time. I have usually found myself being critical of Dr. Marburger for either being complicit or remaining silent as the Bush White House adopts anti-science policies or spins science to pander to the President’s base of right wing religious fanatics.
I have disagreed with him on issues ranging from sex education (sex (…)

Tony Blair and George Bush have "far more blood on their hands" than the terrorists who carried out the London tube bombings, George Galloway said today.
Mr Galloway, Respect MP for Bethnal Green, said that the attacks on the capital by Islamic extremists could not be separated from the invasion of Iraq and Britain’s treatment of the Muslim world.
He said that the "al-Qaida phenomenon" had arisen directly as a result of western policies in the Middle East.
Mr Galloway had already (…)

Aides say ’Bush really cares’ [about avoiding her]
CRAWFORD, TX - Cindy Sheehan, whose son Casey was killed in Sadr City, Iraq, on April 4, 2004, met with two Bush administration aides Saturday after president George W. Bush refused to come out to meet her.
Sheehan, 48 (shown here), traveled to the president’s Crawford ranch after Bush said that fallen U.S. troops had died for a ’noble cause’ and that the mission must be completed.
"I want to ask the president, ’Why did you kill my (…)

SPECIAL REPORT August 7, 2005 — THE ISRAELI "ART STUDENTS/MOVERS MYSTERY" SOLVED.
It was an intelligence operation directed against the United States and the American people. Elements of false flags, security penetrations, photographing America’s critical infrastructure, and spying on Arab cells in the United States all point to a well-coordinated operation that was tolerated by senior members of the Bush administration. The results of a three and a half year investigation now revealed. (…)