contributions

by Chris Kromm
Do progressives and Democrats have a future in the South? Ever since the great unpleasantness of last November, a chorus of left-leaning pundits have taken the region’s defeats—no electoral votes for John Kerry, zero-for-five in open races for US Senate—as a sure sign that the South is a lost cause. Fold up the tent, the doubters say. Focus our energy elsewhere. Or as one indelicate yet frequently forwarded e-mail after the elections put it, "F*ck the South."
Not so fast, (…)

THE MYTH OF SEPARATION
By M. KATO
The Supreme Court is now hearing arguments for and against the display of the Judeo-Christian Ten Commandments on government property involving two cases originating from Kentucky and Texas. It is anyone’s guess how the Supremes will rule even though proponents of a ban on such displays claim that such displays are in clear violation of the Establishment Clause in the First Amendment of the United (…)

A former Marine recruiter explains... How they sell the military
CHRIS DUGAN served in the Marines from 1995 to 1999, including a short period when he was a recruiter. Now, he considers himself a counter-recruiter. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
ALTHOUGH I am a former Marine, I cannot talk to you about the horrors of war. I cannot spin you tales of skirmishes I fought in, or friends that I’ve lost, and I cannot show you any battle scars. During my time as a Marine, I was fortunate that (…)

Toronto Globe and Mail | February 26, 2005:
Paul William Roberts in his Globe and Mail article of Saturday, February 26, 2005 wrote the following:
Hunter telephoned me on Feb. 19, the night before his death. He sounded scared. It wasn’t always easy to understand what he said, particularly over the phone, he mumbled, yet when there was something he really wanted you to understand, you did. He’d been working on a story about the World Trade Center attacks and had stumbled across what he (…)

WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld bears direct responsibility for the torture and abuse of detainees in U.S. military custody, the American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights First charged today in the first federal court lawsuit to name a top U.S. official in the ongoing torture scandal in Iraq and Afghanistan that has tarnished America’s reputation.
The lawsuit was filed in federal court in Illinois on behalf of eight men who were subject to torture and abuse at the (…)

Iraq’s missing billions
Ibrahim Jaafari, the prime-minister-to-be in Iraq, is unlikely to hand over the nation’s valuable oil assets to foreign companies, but he won’t be able to do much about the rest of the Iraqi economy, which was strangled by Coalition Provisional Authority chief L. Paul Bremer in rules and regulations benefiting Western business.
A few of these rules, left over from the Bremer occupation period, as collected last year by Foreign Policy in Focus, the independent (…)

Dad Accused Of Chuck E. Cheese Salad Theft Zapped By Police Aurora Police Say Proper Procedures Followed
AURORA, Colo. — Aurora police have reviewed a weekend incident in which a man accused of stealing salad from a Chuck E. Cheese salad bar was hit with a stun gun twice by officers and said that proper procedures were followed.
The incident began at 4:05 p.m. Sunday when officers were called to the restaurant on a report of a larceny in progress.
Police talked to the Chuck E. Cheese (…)

By: Seth DeLong - COHA Land Reform is the traditional third rail of left-of-center governments and social reform movements. President Hugo Chavez’s plan is fundamentally different from other Latin American attempts at land reform. The proper historical parallel is President Lincoln’s Homestead Act. Chavez’s opponents, who see him as “another Castro,” wrongly view his agrarian reform program as a total assault on private property. Land Reform is one of the most progressive aspects of Chavez’s (…)

A prominent group of musicians and artists, breaking with colleagues and the major entertainment studios, is urging the Supreme Court not to hold online file-sharing services responsible for the acts of users who illegally trade songs, movies and software.
by Jonathan Krim
The group, which includes representatives of Steve Winwood, rapper Chuck D and the band Heart, said in court papers to be filed today that it condemns the stealing of copyrighted works. But it argues that popular (…)

Edmonds Set to Speak at House Hearing on Excessive Classification
A release from the ACLU:
March 1, 2005
WASHINGTON - Sibel Edmonds, who was fired after exposing national security concerns at the FBI, will testify before Congress for the first time Wednesday.
Edmonds, a former Middle Eastern language specialist for the FBI, will share her story with members of the House Committee on Government Reform’s Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats and International Relations. (…)