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Four months after British and American soldiers invaded Iraq in 2003, U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair received a gold medal and standing ovation from the U.S. Congress as he pledged, You’re not going to be alone.’’
To Americans, Blair, 51, is the most stalwart of allies, winning him popularity ratings that any U.S. politician would envy — 76 percent in a November 2003 Gallup poll. At home, it’s another story. Critics deride him as untrustworthy, and taunt him as President George W. (…)

Neil Cavuto Misstates (or Lies About) Pope John Paul II’s Position on Iraq
Neil Cavuto (I’ll be generous, for now) vastly misstated Pope John Paul II’s position on the Iraq war today (April 4, 2005) on Your World w/Neil Cavuto.
Hussein Ibish of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee was a guest. (Fox identified him as being from the "Progressive Muslim Unit," whatever that is.) Hussein was speaking about Pope John Paul’s pacifism and about his frequent support for people on both (…)

by Tim Tagaris
(Note: This is the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen in America since the civil rights movement! 10,000 people in SF tonight prevented $chwarzenegger from attending his own fundraiser for the $pecial election. Cops joined in to protect the protesters outside the Governor’s fundraiser. Follow the liveblog of these astounding events)
This is one thing I love about California, and San Francisco in particular, they don’t play around. Bob Brigham is on-the-ground right now, (…)

GAZA CITY, April 2, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) - Amidst stark warnings of potential outbreak of chronic and deadly diseases, Israeli occupation troops have recently set up a “radioactive” glass room at the main Rafah crossing through which Palestinians have to pass to enter or exit the Gaza Strip.
Palestinian medics said that potential diseases include thrombocytopenic, sterility, congenital anomalies, cancer, leukemia, mental retardation and ductless glands disorder, warning that Palestinians (…)

Apr 5, 2005 By Waleed Ibrahim, Reuters
An Iraqi apparently suspected by U.S. troops of taking part in attacks in Baghdad accused U.S. forces on Tuesday of taking his mother and sister hostage to pressure him and his brothers into surrendering for questioning.
A U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad said he doubted the accusation and was not aware of such an incident. But neighbors interviewed around Arkan Mukhlif al-Batawi’s villa in the capital’s Sunni Arab suburb of Taji corroborated his (…)

This weekend’s attacks on the Abu Ghraib prison facility should be welcomed as a direct assault on the foremost icon of Bush’s War of Terror. Abu Ghraib has the same meaning to Iraqis and free people across the globe as did the Bastille to French citizens prior to the Revolution; an enduring symbol of arbitrary state power and cruelty.
Under Saddam the prison could be dismissed as the natural exponent of a tyrannical regime bent on removing political opponents. Now, however, under the (…)

An American Catholic Relfects on Papacy of John Paul II
By JIM CONNOLLY
This week you will be inundated with honorific obituaries to Karol Wojtila, Pope John Paul II. I am writing not to honor Wojtila; he will (quite frankly) receive more honor in the next week than any individual mortal deserves. I write as a witness to the damage this man did during his 26 years as Roman pontiff to the causes of liberty and peace throughout the world.
There will be few voices such as mine raised on (…)

US Had Hand In Violating Iraq Oil Sanctions Molly Ivins April 05, 2005 Some days, it’s hard to pick the outrage du jour, but hypocrisy is always an inviting target, and the United Nations oil-for-food scandal provides a two-fer.
We have been hearing much right-wing huffing over the dreadful, terrible, awful, unprecedented, worst-ever scandal in all history.
One indignant winger was livid because The New York Times devoted more coverage to the collapse of Enron than to the earth-shaking (…)

by Nashua Advocate
If the radical right’s utter contempt for our nation’s courts was anything less than wholly evident prior to tonight, that blinder has been at once and permanently removed. The worst kept secret about the Republican Party in 2005 is that it does not hate the federal government in its entirety: it merely loathes—and seeks desperately to decimate—one co-equal branch of that government, the judicial branch. Editorial, The Nashua Advocate, March 23rd, 2005
If ignorance of (…)

Stories On Schiavo Protestor Miss One Point: He’s A Registered Sex Offender E&P Staff March 28, 2005 NEW YORK As protests outside the hospice housing Terri Schiavo in her final days mounted last week, numerous newspaper reports, many based on an Associated Press account, mentioned or quoted 10-year-old Joshua Heldreth and/or his father, Scott Heldreth. Josh was one of several youngsters arrested for crossing police lines in Pinellas Park, Fla., in an effort to take water to Schiavo. (…)