contributions

An Inside Look at George W. Bush’s “Murka”
By Manuel Valenzuela
Decline and Decrepitude
"Information Clearing House" - - From the highest mountains to the lowest valleys a great energy has gone missing from the land once known as America, its pulsating and vibrant warmth no longer felt as the enveloping mist of the last four years spreads far and wide, from sea to shining sea, penetrating every porous cavity of escape. An energy of positive realms and humanist inclinations has been (…)

THE CRUX OF BUSINESS
by M. Kato
Marine One is getting old and the President needs a new state-of-the-art helicopter to ferry him around, both in the United States and overseas. More to the point, he needs twenty-three new machines to fulfill this requirement. The Navy Department considered proposals from Lockheed Martin and Sikorsky, the latter having supplied presidential helicopters since the Eisenhower administration. In what is turning into a controversial decision, the Navy (…)

speech by Rep. James McGovern
Please let me begin by expressing my own appreciation and support for the efforts of everyone in this room to make this world a more peaceful place.
It means a great deal to me to meet people and organizations that are committed to building a more peaceful world and using peaceful, non-violent means as a tool of action, as a tool to create social change.
I know that you all have the skill, the experience and the commitment to work towards improving the (…)

Forget nukes. Forget laser-guided missiles. Forget cluster bombs. The most powerful weapon in the U.S. arsenal is xenophobia. This ugly trait is possessed by the majority of U.S. citizens and is widely practiced.
You may ask how a thought process could be more devastating than the hardware the U.S. has used in killing foreigners in genocidal proportions. Xenophobia allows the U.S. government to venture into foreign realms for the purpose of annihilating the people without question by the (…)

by Wayne Besen
The Achilles heal of the modern GOP is that it is a movement rather than a traditional political party. While this arrangement serves as a campaign advantage because it instills message discipline, it leads to habitual overreaching when the Republican Party assumes the mantle of power. Political pragmatism is a strong check on unfettered power, while movements are designed by nature to simply want more.
A chest-thumping Republican Party seems intent on following Newt (…)

by Dian Harrison
Tuesday is International Women’s Day, a worldwide celebration of women’s fight for equality and human rights. In light of this commemoration, it is especially disappointing that the Bush administration is working so hard to restrict women’s rights.
Ten years ago, a landmark U.N. conference in Beijing adopted a platform seeking to establish global equality for women. Along with recommendations on issues such as domestic violence and education, the platform states women (…)

by Danny Schechter
NEW YORK - Italian Journalist Giuliana Sgrena became an icon in Iraq, a role model of a caring journalist of conscience kidnapped by parties unknown. Her plight mobilized the people of Italy with virtually the whole county demanding her release.
In response, Italy dispatched an intelligence agent to find her and negotiate her release. Miraculously, he did, but as fate would have it, was killed by US soldier suspicious of his car, which raced through, they say, a (…)

By URI AVNERY
Many years ago, I read a book called "The Quiet American" by Graham Greene. Its central character is a high-minded, naive young American operative in Vietnam. He has no idea about the complexities of that country but is determined to right its wrongs and create order. The results are disastrous.
I have the feeling that this is happening now in Lebanon. The Americans are not so high-minded and no so naive. Far from it. But they are quite prepared to go into a foreign (…)

By Mike Allen
Rep. Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) and other revolutionaries used accusations of arrogant and heavy-handed tactics to stir a populist revolt against 40 years of Democratic domination of Congress before the GOP takeover of 1994.
Now, after 10 years of Republican control, House Democrats are making strikingly similar charges against today’s Republicans.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) plans to lash out at the chamber’s Republican leaders today with a report accusing (…)

Joint Statement: Episcopal, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Church of Christ and Methodist Churches
We are preachers, and so, in explaining our opposition to the 2006 Federal Budget that President Bush has sent to Congress, it seems only fitting that we should begin with Scripture.
There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell (…)