contributions

The Unione (Union) of centre-left opposition parties is leading in the early stages of Italy’s electoral race, according to a poll by Istituto Piepoli published in La Stampa. 48 per cent of respondents would vote for the alliance.
Former president of the European Commission Romano Prodi is expected to lead Unione-which includes the Olive Tree United List (Ulivo) and the Communist Refoundation Party (PRC)-into the next parliamentary election, tentatively scheduled for May 2006.
The (…)

Mike Ferner served as a corpsman at a navy hospital and aboard an aircraft carrier. He was discharged as a conscientious objector. He spoke to us at the Peace Rally as a member of Veterans for Peace, and challenged us as American citizens to a higher level of morality that I’ve heard from anywhere in the current administration. I’ll say no more. Today you want to spend time with Mike’s words. - Pat Denino
As we gather here this afternoon, our colleagues in Toledo are debuting “Arlington at (…)

Yes, Scott Peterson is going to meet his maker and Robert Blake is going to party hardy, and the president continues to lose more ground in his quest to destroy Social Security every time he speaks on behalf of his own program, but any number of stories of import continue to slip through the cracks of a media that have ceased to take their public educational role seriously. One such story can be found, rather surprisingly one must admit, in the release of a fascinating and insightful new (…)

Revolution takes hold in Kyrgyzstan
A pro-democracy movement sweeping across the Central Asian republic of Kyrgyzstan secured its first political concession from the country’s president yesterday when he ordered a review of results in recent disputed elections.
As protests hailed by opposition supporters as a "tulip revolution" took hold in big cities, President Askar Akayev showed his first signs of weakening in the face of the protests, calling for talks. Jalal-abad police station (…)

This is a story of two people who could not be more different, while at the same time, be so alike. More importantly, it is a story about a whore of a politician who genuinely does not care about either, but shows it in completely different ways. This is a story about hypocrisy and how Tom Delay and the Republican Party embody that principle.
The first person in this sad story is named Terry Schiavo. Most people have heard about Mrs. Schiavo because she has been in the headlines on (…)

COLUMBUS, Ohio — The state’s chief elections official has a message for those who say Ohio’s Nov. 2 election was fraught with unpreparedness, mistakes and fraud: Take a closer look.
Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell was scheduled to testify at a field hearing of the U.S. House Administration Committee on Monday, more than a month after failing to appear at the panel’s first post-election hearing in Washington.
READ: Viewer Polling Place Stories #1 | #2 | #3 | #4 l #5 | #6 | #7 | #8 (…)

As we enter another Easter Season, it’s become all too obvious that if Christ returns, those who hate in Jesus’s name will have him slimed, then killed.
Christ was a long-haired peace activist who would have hated the war in Iraq. "Blessed are the peacemakers" Jesus said in his defining Sermon on the Mount. "Turn the other cheek...Love thy neighbor."
Such hippie-radical ideals are the "Christian" right wing’s worst nightmare. The GOP would never tolerate an upstart like Jesus (…)

Bush War Still Stinks Two Years On Bill Gallagher March 22, 2005 "My fellow citizens, at this hour, American and coalition forces are in the early stages of military operations to disarm Iraq, to free its people and to defend the world from grave danger." — President George W. Bush, March 19, 2003.
DETROIT — We need reminding just how great the gap is between what President George W. Bush promised us his war in Iraq would bring and the reality of the mess the aggression has created. We (…)

When the U.S. went to war in Iraq, Jimmy Massey was a staff sergeant with a marine unit that had the job of setting up checkpoints to protect american forces. In a short period of time, Massey claims, he and his men had killed 30 Iraqi civilians. He says he and the others are guilty of war crimes.
“I brought these series of events up through the chain of command. Each time I was told they were terrorists, or they were insurgents. My question to the marine corps at that point became, how (…)

VIDEO footage of US military treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay will reveal many cases of substantial abuse as "explosive as anything from Abu Ghraib", a lawyer said today. Adelaide lawyer Stephen Kenny, who represented Australian David Hicks during the early part of his detention at the military prison in Cuba, told a law conference today that 500 hours of videotape of prisoners at the US base existed.
The full story of abuse at Guantanamo Bay would not be told until the tapes were (…)